Ilonggo farmers ready for El Niño

MORE than 43,000 hectares of farms in Iloilo province are considered highly vulnerable to the onslaughts of dry spell that is now attacking farmlands all over the country.

Department of Agriculture (DA) said that aside from Iloilo, the other highly vulnerable provinces in Western Visayas are Capiz and Negros Occidental on top of the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Cavite, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga City, Sarangani and South Cotabato.

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Iloilo is considered as the rice granary of Western Visayas and the farmers here are producing more than three metric tons in the last cropping season.

Agriculture Regional executive director Larry Nacionales said the DA is implementing a P570 million worth of intervention measures for the palay sector to offset the effects of El Niño or dry spell on rice production this year.

This amount is part of the P1.7 billion that the DA will realign from its regular budget in 2010 to carry out measures to reduce the expected production losses in the agriculture sector from a possibly prolonged El Niño attack.

The Ilonggo farmers are also encouraged to plant corn, watermelons and other summer fruits, legumes and vegetables during the dry spell.

Nacionales said most of the farmers have already completed the rice harvest cycle last month while harvest in other rice farm areas in the region with irrigation facilities will be completed this month.

Under its 2010 El Niño Mitigation Program, the DA sets aside P613.7 million to carry out intervention for the corn sector, another P411 million for the high value commercial crops (HVCC) sector, and P117.4 million more for fisheries.

Nacionales also said the agriculture department is seeing an option for cloud seeding if the situation so warrants. Cloud seeding operations maybe conducted in watershed areas of Iloilo while shallow tube wells and pump irrigation system will be encouraged.

As early as December last year, the DA had already created a task force to carry out its five-point program to raise crop production along with farmers’ incomes in the face of a looming El Niño attack that is expected to last till middle of June 2010 this year.

The provinces of Aklan and Antique in Panay Island fall under the category of moderately vulnerable to El Niño, including the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Mt Province, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Romblon, Sorsogon, Bohol, Samar, Zamboanga Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga Sur, Bukidnon, Davao Oriental, Davao Sur and Davao City. (LCP)