Philippine deploys drones to combat climate change

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has began to deploy drones to determine which farmlands are  most at risk from natural disasters and quickly assess damages after they strike, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said.

The Philippines ranks as the third ,most disaster prone country in the world because of its high exposure to natural calamities such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical cyclones and  floods.

The drones are equipped with navigation and photogrammetric equipment that can generate detailed and data rich maps from aerial photographs including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index or NDVI, a formula used for assessing vegetation and plant health

Under the initial phase of the pilot project funded by   the Philippines and the FAO, two unmanned drones have already been sent to provinces affected by El Niño.

Some 25 FAO and government technical experts are ready to be deployed across the archipelago to support drone missions. They were trained over three weeks on how to fly the drones and learned a range of remote aerial assessment methods.

The drones are capable of covering up to 600 hectares of land a day and are seen to speed up the process of risk analysis

Data gathered can be used to see where agricultural systems are at particular risk from natural disasters – and identify ways through which such risks can be countered, for example, through ground contouring, building retaining walls, or planting protective vegetation.

“It is efficient, it saves time and we will be using a reliable source of data so that we can plan and provide appropriate interventions and responses for our farmers in times of disasters and calamities,” said Christopher Morales, director of field operations at the DA.

Imagery generated from drone flights can also  reveal where agricultural infrastructure projects and irrigation or storage facilities can be best sited to serve local farmers.

The technology can also potentially support in the assessment of coastal and forest areas.” said Jose Luiz Fernandez, FAO Representative in the Philippines.

Such disasters impact heavily on farms and food systems, leaving people without food in their immediate aftermath and undermining food production capacity for years afterwards.

Approximately 20 strong typhoons affect the Philippine Area of Responsibility each year. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan alone devastated 600,000 hectares of farmland and caused over $700 million in damage to the agriculture sector.

The vulnerability of the agriculture sector to natural hazards is evident elsewhere across the globe. Nearly a quarter of all damages inflicted by natural hazards in the developing world are absorbed by the agriculture sector, FAO studies have shown.