MOVING the schedule of the traditional cropping season and implementing mitigation technologies for farmers in Central Luzon are just among the latest measures being undertaken by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to help farmers in Central Luzon cope with the adverse effects of climate change.
DA Regional Director Crispulo Bautista, Jr. said the said measures aim to reduce the devastating effects of typhoons that hit the agriculture sector in the region.
“We need to implement ways of how to reduce the effects of destructive typhoons. One way is to advance the schedule of the cropping season so that the harvest season will not coincide with the arrival of typhoons,” Bautista said.
He added that for a couple of years now, the DA has been coordinating with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) through its Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (UPRIIS) to release irrigation water from the Pantabangan Dam, on the third week of April, to enable farmers to plant palay as early as May.
This strategy would mean that the harvest season would fall in the months of August and September skirting the month of October which is usually laden with destructive typhoons. However, the project could only be implemented so far in Nueva Ecija and some parts of Pampanga.
But nonetheless, placing the production of Nueva Ecija in a safer cropping cycle means a lot in the country’s rice production. Nueva Ecija alone accounts for 10 percent of the national rice production which contributes some 2 million metric tons of palay per year.
Saved
Two years since the DA had advanced the cropping season, some 30,000 hectares were saved from destructive typhoons and the accompanying floods. In 2017 alone, some 50,000 hectares in Nueva Ecija were saved from typhoons.
For 2018, when typhoons Ompong and Rosita wreaked havoc on some parts of the country, Central Luzon was still able to exceeded production by P56,000 metric tons due to the adjusted cropping cycle.
Every year, rice farmers in Central Luzon, the country’s rice granary region, experience heavy damage to their crops and with typhoons getting stronger each year, the damage to rice and other agricultural crops have also reached unbelievable numbers.
In 2015 alone, Typhoon Lando damaged at least P5 billion worth of crops in Central Luzon.
DA Central Luzon data showed that some P4.8 billion of the damage was on the region’s rice crops and just before 2015 ended, some P438 million was recorded as damaged in terms of rice crops due to the flooding brought by Typhoon Nona.
In 2016, Typhoon Nina damaged some P4 billion of agricultural crops in the whole region with Nueva Ecija, the number one rice-producing province in the country, being the hardest hit. But what makes these figures more alarming is the fact that Central Luzon accounts for 14 to 15 percent of the country’s total rice production.
In the first cropping season of 2015, Central Luzon’s share is 67.31 percent or 355,682 metric tons and 19.85 percent over all contribution to the national production.
Government interventions
Fortunately for 2017, the country’s agriculture sector grew by 4 percent, but this is mainly due “to good weather and strong government interventions”, according to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.
Despite the adjusted cropping cycle, Bautista said that there are still some farmers who have not been keen on joining the new cropping season. Many of these farmers still depend on run-off type of irrigation facilities which means they only start planting when the rains come and fill up irrigation systems.
Bautista said that the establishment of irrigation facilities and mechanization of farm production coupled with the use of certified and hybrid seeds would enable more farmers to join in the new cropping cycle.
This strategy may be useful in Bulacan, since the Angat Dam, a main source of water for the area cannot readily prioritize release of water for irrigation. Angat Dam supplies water for electricity production and household use and only has water for agriculture irrigation as a third priority.
Bautista said that agriculture facilities in the region must be able to withstand the effects of climate change. Mainly, irrigation facilities should withstand flooding and dryers should be readily available for use along with climate resilient warehouses to prolong the shelf life of farm produce.
“There are around a hundred dryers that have been distributed all across the region. These can dry some six to nine tons of palay,” Bautista said.
He added that mechanization too forms an integral part of climate change resilience. Combine harvesters for one can enable farmers to harvest palay even at night.
And with the advance week-long weather projection of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration, farmers can anticipate loses and harvest their crops early.
Technology Research
Technological research on rice varieties also enable farmers to adapt to the effects of climate change. Baustista said that there is a continuing test of new varieties that fit the climate and soil conditions of the region.
After successive cropping, the varieties tested were analyzed based on their resilience and productivity. These were then recommended for use in various farms in the region.
Bautista said that Rc 222 produced by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is among the top rice varieties used in the region due to its positive yield. RC 222 is also among the top four most preferred rice varieties of Filipino farmers in irrigated lowland fields nationwide, both for dry and wet seasons, according to IRRI.
Rc 222, known as Tubigan 18, that has a maximum yield of 10 t/ha matures in 114 DAS. It is moderately resistant to brown planthopper (BPH), green leafhopper (GLH) and stem borers.
The DA’s Agricultural Training Institute- Regional Training Center III (ATI-RTC III), in partnership with Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance (SIPAG) Foundation have been conducting lectures on farm business, climate change adaptation and mitigation technologies for farmers in Central Luzon.
Just last year, 29 farm owners graduated from the Climate-Smart Farm Business School run by SIPAG and ATI-RTC III were farmers were schooled on the different climate smart practices, adaptation, and mitigation strategies.
However, with the ever increasing rise in global temperatures and adverse weather conditions coupled with the environmental impacts of the need to produce food for an ever growing population, the DA and non-government groups here agree that more actions should be done to respond to the challenges brought about by climate change on the agricultural sector.