PIA Dispatch - Sunday, February 14, 2010

EL NINO DISPATCH

Task force crafting emergency food aid for drought-stricken farmers

The Arroyo administration is mulling an emergency food assistance program for the benefit of one million rural families now reeling from an El Niño onslaught that is likely to last till July this year.

Secretary Arthur Yap of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said in media interviews that the task force in charge of the El Niño mitigation program is working on this food aid with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Nutrition Council (NNC) as the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has identified an initial 25 provinces that have been experiencing below-normal rainfall since the August-December 2009 period.

These drought-stricken provinces pinpointed by PAGASA are Benguet, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Batangas, Iloilo , Antique, Guimaras, Capiz, Negros Occidental, Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino according to PAGASA per El Nino Advisory No. 6.

“Alongside this food aid, the task force is also studying such mitigation programs as livelihood projects and farm input subisidies for farmers who can no longer plant at this point as a result of the prolonged dry spell,” Yap said.

Yap said the DA is fine-tuning the Department’s aid package, which will include livelihood projects along with seed and fertilizer subsidies, so farmers will be able to plant anew for the next cropping season as soon as the dry spell ends in July.

The DA started cloud-seeding operations in January, he said, but it cannot really go full blast on this intervention measure because it can only do so when there are seedable clouds.

“If we go full blast on cloud seeding operations even in the absence of seedable clouds, then the DA will just be wasting precious funds on airplane fuel and salt,” he said.

The DA has also been providing affected farmers with water pumps to help them get water from shallow sources, he said, but this has not been rather successful because most of the sources have already dried up.

The department will continue to monitor critical drought areas as well as provide guidance to the National Disaster Coordinating Council during regional visits while the National Irrigation Administration will optimize water delivery and the scheduling of the national irrigation system.

Earlier, Yap ordered DA field officials to work with local government units (LGUs) on the speedy distribution of a package of assistance to palay and corn farmers in Isabela, Cagayan and other provinces already reeling from the crippling effects of the latest El Niño attack.

Yap directed officials of the DA’s regional field units (RFUs) to ensure that this aid package that includes seeds, open source pumps do reach the intended farmer-beneficiarie s soon enough, and to step up their monitoring of developments so the Department can get an accurate picture of the situation and carry out all needed intervention programs for the actual number of farmer-victims.

Yap had directed RFUs to coordinate with LGU executives the distribution of the government’s aid package to affected palay an corn farmers in the drought-stricken provinces and, more importantly, to ensure that such assistance do reach the intended beneficiaries as soon as possible.

He had also instructed RFU executives to intensify their monitoring activities so the DA can get an accurate picture of the El Niño-related damage and then be able to determine what other intervention measures are needed and for exactly how many affected farmers,” he added.
In a report to Yap, Director Andrew Villacorta of the RFU in Northern Luzon said the worst hit areas in his region are Isabela and Cagayan, where losses have already reached P1.984 billion from projected losses of 180,987 MT from completely and partially damaged palay and corn crops in a total of 147,537 hectares.

As earlier ordered by Yap and Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla, who chairs the task force on mitigation measures against this latest El Niño attack, RFUs started carrying out intervention measures in January, including cloud-seeding operations with the help of Aboitiz Corp. covering the Magat Dam, and the distribution of an initial 95 units of Open Source Pumps (OSP) through RFU Region II and the National Irrigation Administration- Magat River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-MARIIS) .

Villacorta reported that as early as December last year, the RFU in the region already purchased rodenticides and insecticides and has, since then, treated 10,523 hectares as a preemptive measure against possible outbreaks of tungro and other diseases that could be triggered by the dry spell.

He said the RFU is set to distribute 25,000 packets of vegetable seedlings to affected farmers and has already bidded out the contract for the supply of another P10 million-worth of vegetable seedlings for distribution to the next batch of farmer-beneficiaries.

Also, the RFU is negotiating for the acquisition of OSPs and has started providing fuel subsidies to farmers with water pumps, he said. (DA Press Office)