Traditional taro farming practices adopted to increase climate change resilience

The women and kids of Ngeremlengui together with United States Ambassador to Palau Amy Hyatt had harvested taros from the taro farm in Ngeremlengui on Friday.

The Taro patches were cultivated through the Pacific-American Climate Fund (PACAM) under a grant from U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) grant.

The project dubbed as “Reviving Traditional Croplands to Improve Community Climate Resilience” had been implemented by the Palau Conservation Society (PCS) and the people of Ngeremlengui to help revive taro patches and traditional soil conservation and watershed management practices that go with taro cultivation to increase food, environmental, and economic security of rural communities.

The project, which was launched in 2016, aims to increase local governance and community resilience to climate change.

“We are happy, the United States Government, through the USAID organization, to partner with the Palau Conservation Society (PCS) to work toward doing all of these for food security, health, and sustainability of Palau and the people of Palau,” US Ambassador Hyatt said in an interview after harvesting some taros with the locals.

“We want the people of Palau to have great health, to carry on their traditions, and to learn from the masters and then to teach their children and grandchildren,” Hyatt added.

Two girls from Ngeremlengui had also been part in the cultivation of the taro patches.

Palau and other pacific island countries are vulnerable to the effects of climate change which include rising tides and extreme weather events that are affecting many communities.

These effects are cited to have resulted in watershed degradation and declines in agriculture and coastal fisheries productivity hence calling for Palau’s actions to address these problems.

Through the project, traditional soil conservation practices used in taro farms will be applied in modern farming principles as guidelines for increasing food, environmental, and economic security which are considered cornerstones of resilient communities. (Rhealyn C. Pojas/Reporter)