NATIONAL COCONUT-BASED INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) SPECIALIST

Organizational Setting:

For more than four decades, FAO has been working with the Government of the Philippines, civil society, community-based organizations and the private sector to address challenges in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector. Joint efforts have included increasing sustainability in agricultural production, promoting value-adding practices, improving post-harvest management, enhancing productivity and increasing the resilience of agriculture-based livelihoods to natural disasters, climatic hazards and armed conflict.

Reporting Lines:

The National Coconut-based Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Specialist will be under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative in the Philippines ad interim, direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme), the supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative for Programme and guidance of the Team Leader of the Mindanao and Emergency Response and Preparedness Group (natural and human-induced), and will work in close coordination with the National Coconut-based Farming Systems Specialist/Team Leader, Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) – Research and Development Branch and Department of Agriculture (DA).

Technical Focus:

FAO will provide technical assistance (through a TCP) on crop diversification and pest and disease management through Climate Resilient Coconut based-Farming Systems (CR-CBFS) including Integrated Pest Management (IPM) through Climate Resilient Farmer Field School (CR-FFS) to address low productivity of coconut farms due to natural hazards including pest and diseases. The project will assist priority coconut farming households from the PCA “KAANIB” program (“Kasaganaan sa Niyugan ay Kaunlaran ng Bayan” or bounty of the coconut farms is key to progress of the country). These coconut households were previously organized by PCA to promote and practice crop diversification and farm level processing.

Tasks and responsibilities

The National Coconut-based Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Specialist will carry out the following tasks:

1. Review the existing IPM strategies/protocols on coconut pests in the Philippines and recommend appropriate strategies for the following target pilot sites:

• Region IV-A – Quezon province
• Region VIII – Southern Leyte province
• Region XI – Davao Oriental

2. Provide technical recommendations to improve coconut pest management and delimiting protocols (e.g. coconut scale insect, etc.);
3. Provide technical inputs to the development of guidelines/policy for climate resilient coconut-based farming systems for possible upscaling in major coconut growing areas in the country;
4. In collaboration with the National Coconut-based Farming Systems Specialist/Team Leader and other relevant technical colleagues from DA and PCA, prepare site-specific training modules on IPM to be included in the Climate Resilient Coconut-based Farming Systems (CRCBFS) -Farmer Field School (FFS);
5. Provide technical inputs and serve as facilitator or resource person in the training of trainers (ToT) for CRCBFS-FFS;
6. Provide technical inputs in the development and production of IEC materials for IPM on resilient coconut-based farming systems; and
7. Carry out any other relevant duties within her technical competence as may be requested by FAO.

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