USAID’s Climate Strategy in Action: Cultivating Climate Resilience through Sustainable Ube Farming
This blog is part of the USAID’s Climate Strategy in Action series. It expands on a photo submitted to the 2023 Climatelinks Photo Contest to highlight how USAID is confronting climate change across sectors.
In Palawan, Philippines, Angelita Galinato, an Indigenous Tagbanwa woman, savors the fruits of her labor: freshly harvested, robust, high- quality purple yams, known locally as “ube.” But this was not always the case; like many smallholder farmers, Angelita faces challenges to her livelihood from the harsh realities of a changing climate.
Angelita shared, “We used to plant ube randomly in available patches of land…and leave the plants to grow and hope for the best. But with erratic rains, typhoons, and drought spells, there are fewer, smaller, and poor-quality yams for us to harvest.” In addition to extreme weather, pest infestations due to warmer temperatures threaten the production of ube and other essential staples in Angelita’s community. These challenges mean dwindling incomes for Angelita and other smallholder farmers because they cannot meet the market’s demand for high-quality crops.
An initiative by Geospatial Assessment and Modelling of Urban Heat Islands in Philippine Cities (Project GUHeat) confirms climate change's adverse effects on ube cultivation in the Philippines attributing reduced yields to rising temperatures and altered weather patterns. Urgent measures are needed to mitigate these effects on agriculture.
USAID’s Safe Water Activity improves water security in water-stressed communities in the Philippines. Safe Water recognizes the need to promote sustainable livelihoods and good agricultural practices among upland farmers, who play a vital role in improving the health of watersheds. Sustainable livelihood sources like ube farming give farmers a viable alternative to destructive practices like kaingin (slash and burn) and charcoal production. In turn, these interventions help communities and the ecosystem become more resilient to climate change.
To train Angelita and other farmers in her community to shift to eco-friendly techniques aligned with international sustainability standards, Safe Water partnered with Sunlight Foods Corporation, a company that specializes in producing high-quality organic fruits and vegetables. Starting with a demonstration farm, Sunlight Foods taught the farmers about proper land preparation to ensure correct water infiltration, planting methods, and cultivation to optimize the survival of planting material. They also taught the farmers about the benefits of using organic fertilizers and pesticides.
With training on proper planting and maintenance methods, Angelita now knows how her ube farm can yield higher-quality ube and adapt to shifting weather conditions, thus strengthening her and other smallholder farmers' resilience to climate change. “Safe Water’s guidance has been invaluable,” Angelita said. “In dealing with a changing climate, we’ve turned to organic farming and nature-based solutions to maintain soil fertility and conserve water resources.” She credits the training for an increased crop yield, with 70 percent of her harvest meeting quality standards in 2023 and over 90 percent meeting them in 2024.
Sustainable ube farming has benefitted Angelita and 2,000 other farmers in Palawan. With 32 farmer organizations cultivating ube, this initiative has become a model of good agricultural practices for other farmers. Their local produce has reached national markets as a key ingredient for ice creams and food snacks sold in supermarkets, ice cream parlors, and fast-food chains. Consistent earnings have spurred community savings initiatives, with farmers allocating 20 percent of funds to watershed protection and restoration projects. These efforts bolster environmental conservation and directly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, helping meet the targets in USAID's 2022-2030 Climate Strategy.
With the demand for ube soaring and prices rising, Angelita is excited about the future. “I’m excited to plant ube again, especially now that prices have risen,” she declared.
Beyond its economic prospects, ube—once merely used for household consumption—has emerged as a symbol of resilience and profitability for Indigenous communities in the Philippines. USAID’s strategic partnership brought new skills and knowledge to ube farmers and linked them to markets that love the taste and flavor of this purple root crop.
USAID Philippines Safe Water Activity Team
USAID Philippines Safe Water Activity provides Philippine local government units, water service providers, and watershed councils in target provinces with the information, incentives, and partnerships they require to identify and address barriers to a water-secure future—yielding life-saving gains in access to water supply and sanitation services for unserved and underserved households in the Philippines’ most water-stressed communities.
