Launch of climate school – network of asia and pacific producers (napp)

Climate change is a fundamental threat to many agriculture regions across Asia Pacific. Small Producer Organization remain particularly vulnerable with the change posing serious threat to their livelihoods. Many countries in the region are experiencing frequent natural calamities- intense flooding, droughts, storms. Under developed and developing countries in Asia and Pacific are particularly vulnerable as their economies are substantially dependent on agriculture and related businesses. Fairtrade Network of Asia and Pacific Producers (NAPP) with more than 270 producer organizations has therefore rolled out an innovative new project to support farmers in adapting to climate change starting with the launch of ‘Climate Schools’ across Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Laos with over 12 Producer Organizations. The project will gradually scale up to entire Asia Pacific Region. The ‘Climate Adaptation Project’ aims to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of small producer organizations through trainings and subsequent application of insights, skills and techniques in the farm. The resilience is built through the development of cutting-edge management practices at a community and institutional level undertaken with the expertise of a UK Based social enterprise ‘Climate Edge’ which specialises in gathering relevant farm specific climate and production data & data analytics. On 27th Nov 2018- the NAPP Climate School was officially launched with the installation of 05 weather stations in 05 Fairtrade Producer Organizations along with a workshop on technical session by the Climate Edge consultants on how to gauge climate change. The Project will have three phases:- The first phase will involve installation of ‘Weather Station’ installation and ‘Monitoring’ The weather station allows relevant climatic data to be collected on farms to detect threats and to guide the precision use of inputs and irrigation method. 2nd Phase will include setting up of ‘Farmer Field school/Demonstration’ plots in SPOs where the weather stations are installed in order to showcase climate adaptation technologies. 3rd Phase will include setting up a ‘Climate Portal’- a knowledge sharing platform for all the Fairtrade producers based on the entire research and findings.