Theme 3: Enhancing proactive adaptation to climate change, variability, and extremes

• Improve the nutritional condition and dietary habits of school-aged children by increasing production of locally adapted vegetables through school gardening and consequently contribute to the community's food and nutrition security
• Increase diversity and availability of food within the local community that will meet the nutritional needs of children
• Increase the knowledge and improve the skills of students and teachers on food production and nutrition through experiential learning activities that inculcate the importance of agriculture, environmental concerns, and the use of locally adapted green technologies
• Reduce families' food expenses, create savings, and provide an alternative source of income for families to alleviate poverty

• Phase 1. Preliminary Phase
  The preliminary phase includes the selection of pilot schools, conduct of planning workshop, assessment of existing school gardens, baseline study on the nutritional status of children, preparation of garden plans, curricula review and acquisition of garden inputs and structures.
• Phase 2. Establishment and Maintenance Phase
  Phase 2 involves the establishment and maintenance of the school gardens, development of lesson plans integrating agriculture and nutrition concepts to the current curriculum, development of training manuals, organization of core groups and establishment of linkages and cross-visits and monitoring of project sites.
• Phase 3. Value-Adding Phase
  Phase 3 includes the following activities: harvesting of produce, assessment of garden produce and utilization, end line study on the nutritional status of children, awarding of outstanding school garden, and development of upscaling strategy.

Completed

Key Accomplishments:

• Improved nutrition, knowledge, attitude, and practices towards vegetable consumption and production
• Enhancement of the pilot schools' respective existing gardens
• Preparation of 125 lesson plans integrating the concepts of nutrition, organic agriculture, CC mitigation and adaptation, and solid waste management
• Improved supply and quality of fresh vegetables for the school-based feeding program

• Recommendations to make DA's policies, planning, operations, monitoring, and evaluation functions related to its key mandates, namely Research and Development (R&D), Agriculture and Fishery Regulation, and Agricultural Extension, Climate Change-resilient
• Review of DA's planning, monitoring and evaluation systems including the reformulation of Agriculture Rehabilitation Plan for Yolanda-Affected Areas and recommendations on systems and procedures to achieve CC-resiliency in DA's plans and budget
• Establishment and operation of an Integrated Climate Change Geographic Information System (ICCGIS) laboratory at the central office and the production of multi-hazard and crop suitability maps in support of DA's functions
• Review and formulation of policies on disaster risks reduction and management (DRRM)
• Initial capacity building interventions to key DA officers
• Initial institutional assessment; and the conduct of special studies in support of above concerns

Completed