Climate finance eludes small farmers, fishers in Philippines

Fishermen harvest oysters and red grouper near a sprawling mangrove in Zamboanga Sibugay, a remote province in the southern Philippines.  

Only a few decades ago, fish resources in and around the coastal town of Kabasalan were depleted due to the cutting down of mangroves, until a small group of fishermen took it upon themselves to rehabilitate the trees. 

“We decided to just act on our own. We started planting mangrove trees. I was thinking that maybe when the government sees our efforts and how committed we are, they will eventually help us,” fisherman Roberto Ballon said when BenarNews visited the area in December.

Despite their crucial role in food production, small-scale Filipino farmers and fishermen struggle from a lack of aid and support, advocates say.

In the Philippines – one of the nations most vulnerable to climate change – smallholder fishermen and farmers spend mostly their own money to adapt but are largely excluded from global climate finance, according to advocates who are calling for systemic change. 

“Small fisherfolk and farmers usually rely on their own efforts because they do not get sufficient support – either from the government or from climate funders,” said Esther Penunia, secretary-general of the Manila-based Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA), an alliance of national farmers’ unions from more than a dozen countries.

“If they are lucky, they get a bit of help from the government, mostly one-time financial aid that is not sustainable,” Penunia said.

Climate finance refers to financing initiatives from private and public sectors for actions to address climate change. Countries with more resources and which contribute more greenhouse gas emissions are primarily called upon to fund climate finance initiatives.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), smallholder farmers produce a third of the world’s food, yet receive little funding.

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A 2023 report by the independent nonprofit Climate Policy Initiative showed that, from 2019 to 2020, global climate finance to small farmers was strikingly low – at only $5.53 billion. The amount was just 0.8% of total climate finance and 19% of climate funds given to the entire agrifood system, including industrial-scale agriculture.

Money for most climate-funding projects is channeled through governments, Penunia said. Smallholder farmers and their organizations in Asia, which have little to no capability and technical expertise to meet the funders’ demands, rarely get their project proposals approved.

Penunia said it was difficult for small-scale farmers to tap into climate finance because of lengthy and expensive processes in getting proposals approved. Sometimes, a proposal can take up to two years, require thousands of documents, and cost over U.S. $500,000.

“Small farmer groups like us could not afford this,” Penunia said. They would sometimes partner with bigger organizations, which would ask for management fees.

Ballon, a 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for his contributions to environmental conservation and community development, agreed. 

“It is so difficult to get funding,” Ballon, a community leader who is also running for a Senate seat in the Philippine mid-term elections in May, told BenarNews.

“We are all at the losing end.”

Struggles for smallholder farmers

Jon Sarmiento, an organic farmer in Oriental Mindoro in the central-western Philippines, shared the same sentiment.

A community organizer and climate activist, Sarmiento maintains a 44,000-square-meter (52,623.5-square-yard) self-sustainable farm. 

Sarmiento, who had long stopped growing the same crop every year, implemented an integrated diversified farming system, starting in 2010.

His farm is strategically made up of separate components designed to complement one another. He grows rice, and raises fish and ducks in the same paddies. Vine vegetables are planted on trellises above fish ponds.

The farm also has a nutrient recycling system that includes natural pest management and livestock manure as fertilizers that enhances soil health.

The trees planted on the farm’s borders serve as effective barriers against wind and erosion. 

BenarNews visited Sarmiento on a stormy weekend in January.

His farm stood out among nearby hectares of inundated rice fields. The extreme rainfall caught many people off guard, including Sarmiento and his farmer neighbors. But because Sarmiento had a diverse farm, he was able to quickly adjust.

“I thought my farm would be devastated. But it turned out, only the windbreakers were destroyed. Our chickens, pigs, [and] fish were all alive. The other components of the farm were still functioning. We were able to rebuild in just 21 days,” Sarmiento told BenarNews. 

But his neighbors, who only plant rice, could only do so much due to lack of funding and knowledge. To transition to a diversified organic system, farmers must shell out around $850 to $4,300, experts said.

“Fund farmers now. We cannot just keep on waiting like this while climate crises worsen,” Sarmiento said.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), which administers climate finance across Asia, said it supported the Philippine government’s efforts to help the farmers amid climate change.

These include “climate-related information and services provided to the farming community,” such as farm weather outlooks and climate-related agricultural advisories, said Omer Zafar, principal natural resources and agriculture specialist at the ADB.

Sarmiento pushed for better government measures to help farmers insure their crops from the effects of climate change.

“[A] majority of farmers have no access to climate financing. Some financing options have high interest rates. Who can we go to now?” he said.

“Climate finance should be accessible to farmers, who bring food to the table.”