DA braces for El Niño

After PAGASA Warning

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture is preparing anew for the El Niño phenomenon expected to take place in the first quarter to ensure less impact and immediate recovery of the farm sector.

DA has drafted its mitigation and adaptation plan that aims to lessen the impact of El Niño as projected by state weather bureau PAGASA.

The plan also aims to restore agricultural productive capacity for the next cropping season in areas that may be affected by the drought.

PAGASA said hotter days could begin this quarter, affecting 47 provinces in the country.

With an 80 percent chance of occurring, El Nino is expected to incur damage to the agriculture sector particularly on certain crops like rice and corn, which account for nearly half of the total farm production in the country.

“A National El Niño Task Force has been created to monitor and coordinate various El Niño programs with regional offices, bureaus and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to ensure that proper actions will be taken in response to El Niño,” the DA said.

The DA has so far not received any damage and losses report from any province.

However, it has put in place the necessary safeguards to protect the interest of farmers as well as agricultural crops.

These include the provision of high quality drought-tolerant varieties of rice, corn and high value crop seeds and intensified pest surveillance and monitoring to avoid the occurrence of pests and diseases.

DA has also advised farmers to plant early maturing or short gestation crops while insurance premium for crops has been readied.

For livestock, buffer feed stocks, veterinary drugs and biologics are in place while dispersal of fingerlings to replenish projected production loss has been readied for the fisheries sector.

As for water management, DA plans to improve irrigation canals, repair diversion dams, replace non-serviceable pump and engine sets and conductcloud deeding operation for affected areas.