Effects of Climate Hazards on the Suitability of Selected Crops in Cotabato Province

Studies of climate change in the Philippines are immensely important as the country is stricken by various climate change hazards. As climate hazards affect agricultural sector, changes in the suitability of crops, alter cropping patterns and shift in cropping calendar. Hence, an examination on the effect of climate hazards to crop suitability is needed to develop a site-specific recommendation vis-à-vis crop suitability. Applying the concept of crop climatic suitability modelling to assess the spatial changes in crop suitability through descriptive-exploratory investigation, data on elevation, land cover, soil texture, temperature and rainfall at provincial level were used to map the suitability of Rubber, Coconut, Upland and Lowland Rice and Coffee in the province. Climate hazard maps were used to generate the final suitability map through ArcGIS. Results showed that coffee’s moderately suitable areas increased from 19.78% to 72.07% as an effect of climate hazard replacing very high to high suitable areas. Coconut’s highly suitable areas decreased by 56.84% while a decrease to around 8% for rubber and became only about 9% for upland rice. Sordid effect on wetland (lowland) rice has been observed as the province became very low suitable (84.04%) for lowland rice production; thereby only 7.72% remained to be moderately suitable for its production. Knowledge on the effects of climate hazards to crop suitability can be used for strategic planning in drafting climate change action plans both in the local and the national level whic can aid in preparing farmers in the future scenarios. Local and national government can formulate framework for the adaptation and mitigation strategies and develop technologies that are site-specific to build a resilient agricultural community.

Keywords –ArcGIS, climate hazards, Cotabato, crop suitability