WeatherPhilippines, Pilipinas Shell expands partnership to empower agri
Private weather information provider WeatherPhilippines Foundation, Inc. and Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. (PSFI), currently the former’s gold sponsor, is taking its partnership a notch by empowering agricultural communities through useful weather information.
The expanded partnership aims to develop ‘weatherwiser’ Filipino farmers who will use sustainable farming techniques through the use of weather data.
The #WeatherWiser Future Filipino Farmers Project, which is targeted to be up and running in 2018, will initially benefit PSFI’s organic training farm in Bombon, Camarines Sur established to serve as a modern farming training facility for Bicolano farmers.
“WeatherPhilippines aims to be the catalyst who will link the farmers and agricultural small and medium enterprises to available technology and experts who can help them interpret complex weather and climate information,” explained WeatherPhilippines General Manager Dave Valeriano.
The Philippines, despite the increase its rapid urbanization, is still primarily an agricultural country. Our agriculture sector employs almost 40% of the labor force and contributes about 20 percent to the country’s gross domestic product.
Since farming practices are location-specific, especially in an archipelagic region, there is a need for highly localized weather data to help farmers mitigate crop losses during extreme weather conditions and increase their agricultural productivity through technical capabilities.
Under its #WeatherWiser campaign, WeatherPhilippines had previously partnered with PSFI back in 2015 to help the latter’s communities, specifically its areas of operations in Palawan which include a heliport, depot, and its host communities, be educated on safety awareness, consciousness, and preparedness in times of emergencies.
