Kiwis aid Phl’s climate smart agriculture
Funding and technical assistance from New Zealand help the Philippines turn into a regional hub for measuring and managing agricultural GHG emissions.
GERARD Guadayo (left), project leader from the Dairy Training and Research Institute of the University of the Philippines-Los Banos, shows to New Zealand Ambassador Catherine McIntosh (center) and Dr. David Pacheco from the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Center a cow inside a Headbox Respiration Chamber Facility. The chamber measures its oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production for determining metabolic rate which is pivotal in the development of a Tier 2 inventory for cattle emissions in the Philippines.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF CGIMP
You can’t mitigate what you don’t measure.
This slogan of the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Initiative of New Zealand (NZ) sums up the rationale of the organization and why it helps other countries account for their agriculture industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission to come up with corresponding mitigation measures.
Under the initiative, the Kiwi government is supporting the development of CSA in the Philippines by funding its GHG inventories for livestock conducted by the University of the Philippines-Los Baños’ (UPLB) Dairy Training and Research Institute (DTRI) and the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC). The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries and the NZ Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) provide the funds for improving the livestock feed characterization and GHG estimation facilities for buffalo, including for a gas analyzer. NZ’s investment for the Philippine program is over NZ$1.6 million (P55.4 million).
“The long-term objective of this collaboration is to enable the PCC and UPLB to identify, plan and implement measures aligned with national objectives for livestock development and GHG mitigation, as outlined in the Philippines’ Nationally Determined Contributions. Through this research, the program will ultimately identify practical mitigation options,” according to the NZ Embassy in the Philippines.
Last 26 to 27 August, officials from the embassy, NZ Ministry for Primary Industries and NZAGRC visited the DTRI in UPLB to see the progress of NZ-funded ASEAN CSA initiative. Both sides also discussed the progress of the CSA project and the broader implications for livestock development and emission mitigation strategies in the Philippines.
KIWI delegates and UPLB officials conclude the visit with a coffee break at the DTRI cafe (from left): Dr. David Pacheco from the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Center, UPLB Chancellor Jose V. Camacho Jr., Matthew Johnson from the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, Dr. Roger Hegarty of NZAGRC, project leader Gerard Guadayo from the UPLB College of Agriculture and Food Science’s Dairy Training and Research Institute, DTRI project leader Dr. Amado Angeles, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade policy officer David Pennycook, New Zealand Ambassador Catherine McIntosh and DTRI director Dr. Arnel del Barrio.