Empowerment, dedication, and collaboration – these three things, as Roberto Ballon Jr. narrated, continuously keep the fire burning for him and his fellow farmer fisherfolks to fulfill their calling in attaining a sustainable and resilient agricultural sector.
While putting his achievement as one of the 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees on the sideline, Roberto “Ka Dodoy” Ballon Jr. took pride in the achievements of his fellow fisher farmers in Zamboanga, Sibugay. In his message during the last day of the event series to commemorate the tenth general assembly and the twentieth-year anniversary of the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA)’s 10th General Assembly and 20th Anniversary Celebration last October 2022, Ka Dodoy recalled the milestones of fisher farmer organizations and federations on attaining environment protection, restoration, and management.
Mangrove Reforestation and Sustainable Livelihood
“So currently, our project aims not just to provide more livelihood in the country in our community. But mostly, we would like to provide [a] safe, healthy, and peaceful environment, especially this climate change,” said Ka Dodoy as he shared the efforts exerted by their organization, the Kapunungan sa mga Gagmay’ng Mangingisda sa Concepcion (KGMC), in partnership with different institutions, to continuously attain mangrove reforestation. Across the 13 coastal municipalities in Zamboanga, Sibugay, he stated that they have planted mangroves and protected an estimated area of 7,000 hectares of mangroves.
This has enabled them to produce different food products from mangrove crops and asuhos fish, which Ka Dodoy emphasized came back to the coastal areas since the mangroves have been restored.
The caught asuhos, Ka Dodoy shared, were produced into dried fish for their organization’s enterprise. He then walked the participants through their ongoing initiatives. Aside from mangrove reforestation, he also showcased their organization’s enterprise as their sustainable livelihood project for their farmers’ community. With aquaculture as their main activity, he shared that they are currently cultivating and processing lapu-lapu and shells, specifically oyster or talaba. One of their achievements through the enterprise, as Ka Dodoy narrated, is to innovate by coming up with value-adding products – not just to sell their catch, but to process and sell them at a higher price.
Despite these milestones, Ka Dodoy still put at the forefront how their livelihoods are suffering from the impacts of climate change. Though they are able to adapt and innovate, he still calls upon and challenges the government for help to combat the natural calamities that devastate their source of income. He also emphasized the immediacy of bringing relief and accessing People’s Relief Funds in times of calamities.
With the agricultural sector as the most vulnerable to these natural calamities and the impact of climate change, Ka Dodoy calls for the utmost attention and support from his fellow farmers and fisherfolks from the government.
‘Co-LOVE-oration’, dedication, and empowerment
To be able to fulfill their calling as farmers and fisherfolks to provide sustainable and safe food and livelihood, as well as resilient communities against the impact of climate change, Ka Dodoy added the most important goal of their organization: people empowerment, or as he called it, the “coastal people community empowerment.”
Ka Dodoy shared that aside from the livelihood opportunities that their enterprise can offer to its members, they also participate in training and seminars that can hone their skills as fishermen and leaders of their own communities.
And to sustain the ongoing projects and programs they conduct, he also zeroed in on leading with dedication. Ka Dodoy imparted that not being able to finish a degree is not a hurdle, but continuously becoming a person with high dedication is a key to keeping one going in what he’s doing.
Closing his message, he left the participants a challenge to “co-LOVE-orate.” “Co-LOVE-orate,” as he explained, is a play of the words ‘collaborate’ and ‘love.’ “Without this ‘co-LOVE-oration’ – partnership with love – we will not succeed [in] our intention to combat this varied climate change and especially to combat what is, what we would like to happen as fisher farmers. So that’s why that’s one of our callings for attention [to] our leaders not only in our country, but in [the] whole Asia, but maybe in the whole global and the whole… this planet.”
As sustainability and resilience come hand-in-hand, people and nations should also come hand-in-hand – collaborating and partnering towards the same goal of achieving sustainable food and livelihood, as well as climate-resilient communities. #
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