PIA Dispatch - Saturday, February 13, 2010

EL NINO DISPATCH

Central Visayas agri sector prepares mitigation measures for El Nino

The Department of Agriculture – Region 7 has prepared a set of measures to mitigate the adverse effects of the El Niño dry spell expected to affect cropping in the first semester of 2010. During the series of consultative meetings with the provincial coordinators for the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani program for Rice, Corn, High Value Commercial Crops and livestock and poultry, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) in Central Visayas bared that El Niño in the equatorial Pacific continues to sustain its moderate strength and is recently in its mature stage. Gradual decrease in sea surface temperature is expected but still within the El Niño threshold and likely to last up to June 2010.

Data taken from PAGASA synoptic stations in Tagbilaran City , Dumaguete City , and Lapulapu City showed that rainfall generally decreased during the period October 2009 to January 2010 compared to the normal rainfall observed during the same period from 1971 to 2000. This year’s El Niño would likely be moderate and the province of Bohol and some parts of Negros Oriental in Central Visayas are included in the areas identified as “moderately vulnerable.”

As early as December last year, the DA Central Office had already created a task force to carry out a program to ensure sustained crop production and farmers’ income in the face of a probable El Niño crisis. This includes:

· Ensuring water availability in production areas through different irrigation technologies and cloud seeding;

· Making available farm inputs appropriate for prolonged dry and drought agro-climatic conditions;

· Providing technologies/ options to enhance farmers’ coping and decision-making mechanisms during adverse conditions; and

· Creating a policy environment for effective and efficient implementation of the El Nino Mitigation Program at the regional and provincial level of possible vulnerable areas.

The El Niño task force, which will implement the DA’s El Nino Mitigation program, have identified 23 “highly vulnerable” provinces and 24 “moderately vulnerable” provinces in the country.

In view of this, the DA Region 7 office has already reactivated the regional task force to initially gather and validate data from the provinces and municipalities in Central Visayas that will most likely be affected by El Niño. Based on the records from the 2002 El Niño episode, there are 28 municipalities in Bohol, 29 municipalities in Cebu , 8 municipalities in Negros Oriental and all 6 towns of Siquijor identified as vulnerable areas.

During the month of February to early March, the regional El Niño task force will be working closely with the attached agencies of NIA, BFAR, BAS, PCA, NDA, NMIS, FIDA, NFA and PAGASA and the local government units in gathering relevant data such as status of standing crop as to commodity and corresponding area planted and/or harvested, rainfall and other agro-meteorological data, status of vegetation (including forage and pasture), incidence of crop damage and farm animal mortality, water level status of national and communal irrigation systems and other small-scale irrigation projects such as small-water impounding (SWIP), small-farm reservoir (SFR) and springs.

These data will be the basis for identifying and prioritizing the appropriate measures to mitigate or cushion El Niño’s adverse effects to crop production in areas most likely to be affected. The four banner commodity programs of DA (Ginintuang Masaganang Ani or GMA program) on Rice, Corn, HVCC, livestock and poultry have tentatively prepared some mitigating measures for El Niño.

The GMA Rice program expects that 3,788 hectares of rice lands might be affected by drought because of El Niño and most of these will be in the province of Bohol . Plans are being set for the establishment of 55 units of shallow tube wells and pump irrigation system open-source (PISOS), restoration or rehabilitation of 7 existing irrigation systems and distribution of drought-resistant varieties such as PSB Rc 68 intended for 125 hectares of affected rice areas.
DA, through the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is also intensifying its efforts to promote the Water-Saving Technology (Alternate Wet and Dry) in rice areas serviced by national and communal irrigation systems in the region.

In terms of corn production, El Niño is expected to reduce area planted to corn by 2,671 hectares, which might result to an estimated production loss of 6,674 metric tons. Some of the strategies designed by the GMA Corn program to combat the effects of El Niño in the corn-producing areas are to: (1) distribute 6,000 bags of seeds of drought-tolerant corn seed varieties; (2) encourage farmers to plant sweet potato and cassava as corn intercrop by distributing planting materials to be planted in 70 hectares throughout the region; (3) conduct 4 batches of training on corn production for farmers and retooling of corn technicians; and (4) distribute 100,000 trichogramma cards for the control of corn borer for an estimated 2,000 hectares of areas planted to corn in Cebu, Bohol and Negros Oriental.

The GMA Livestock program has also lined up several measures to counter the ill effects of El Niño on the livestock and poultry sector. These consist of the promotion of technologies on silage production, utilization of farm byproducts and other feed resources, mineral and protein supplementation and animal health protection. The above interventions are expected to cover approximately 1 million animal population in threatened areas.

According to the GMA HVCC program, a total of 426 hectares of areas planted to vegetables and other commercial crops throughout the region are considered vulnerable or threatened areas, which if affected by El Niño would result to an estimated production losses of 959 metric tons.
This will include an estimated 240 hectares of prime mango production areas and 20 hectares planted to ubi kinampay in the province of Bohol.As mitigating measures, the GMA HVCC program will be distributing some 1,300 kilograms of assorted vegetable seeds, 160,000 pieces of ubi planting materials and 160 bags of mango flower inducer. These will be complemented with the development or establishment of 25 springs and 40 drip irrigation systems as source for irrigation for vegetable and commercial crops in affected areas. (GRACE LEN C. DAGALA/DA RFU 7)