AGRICULTURE Secretary Emmanuel Piñol warned Negrenses that El Niño will affect them until November.
Piñol said the government has long prepared for the onslaught of El Niño in the country, but he forewarned Negros, Mindoro and Palawan to brace for it as it will affect the areas longer than the other provinces in the country.
“But even if the El Niño would last until the end of November in your province, and if we are able to do the cloud seeding, we will do it. We can provide interventions. We have the money. This is unlike before when they were caught flat-footed. But we are in the block already, ready to start off and run,” Piñol earlier said.
He was with Governor Alfredo G. Marañon Jr. during the press conference held at Balay Kauswagan in Sagay City during the visit of President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Friday, March 8. He was optimistic that El Niño will be handled well by his department.
He said the Department of Agriculture has downloaded funds to the regions, and at any given time a region would be ready to plant and ask for cloud seeding, then, it will be ready. As far as funds are concerned, as early as the first quarter of 2018 when the first report came of a possible El Niño in the country, DA already formed the Task Force El Niño.
“We are ready with our crop insurance, survival, and recovery insurance that grants P25,000 to farmers affected by El Niño,” said Piñol.“There is no collateral and no interest on it but payable within three years. We are ready with our Production Loan Easy Access under our quick reaction fund.”
There are considerations to be taken. Like in Mindoro, rice farmers had requested cloud seeding. But when officials validated the area, they found that there were onion farms that were supposed to be harvested. The cloud seeding had to be postponed because it would ruin the onion farms.
Secondly, clouds are needed for cloud seeding because without it, one will not be able to seed anything.
Thirdly, farmers have to be ready to plant because it would be useless to have artificial rains when they don’t plant immediately.
“When they are ready to plant, we will monitor if thick clouds are up above their farms. If bombarded with salt, it will rain, we will do it. If the farmers will tell us that they are ready to plant and the clouds are also present, then we will proceed with the cloud seeding,” said Piñol.
As for the interventions outside of cloud seeding, the government has allocated a substantial amount for it.
“We cannot quantify because it would depend on the damage by the El Niño. The good thing is that El Niño would wane toward the end of May. In Mindanao, it would wane toward end of April, and by the first quarter of December, it will be totally gone. But for Negros, Mindoro and Palawan, it will linger a little more by late November. But by December, it will be gone,” he said.
He asked Marañon and Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino to prepare for it.
Marañon was quick to respond that a request had been made.