Farmers have sleepless nights providing water for their rice fields as El Niño phenomenon continues to hit the country.
“We spend the night diverting the water from the irrigation so that our palay will have water,” said Milit Allaga, a farmer.
Allaga said they also follow a scheme to provide equal opportunities among the farmers. Each farmer is given an hour to divert the water to his rice field.
“We just planted last month and our rice fields should have enough water for at least three months but with the present situation, it looks like the water will last until the end of this month or probably first week of March,” she said.
The local agriculture department said that they have programs and projects ready for the onslaught of the dry season, which was forecasted to last until June this year.
The Provincial Agriculture Office also said that they have already prepared projects such as small farm reservoir and started rehabilitating existing irrigation projects. (Vency D. Bulayungan)