MindanaoToday.com | El Niño to impact on Normin farms
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Adverse effects of El Niño, a weather phenomenon characterized by below normal or no rainfall at all for three or more consecutive months, are expected hit Northern Mindanao, particularly on irrigated farmlands, within the months of March and April this year.
Anthony Joseph Lucero, head of the Mindanao Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration Regional Services Division (MPRSD), disclosed this dry condition forecast in a Kapihan sa PIA forum at Limketkai Center in Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday, January 24.
“Below normal rainfall conditions started January this year, but I cannot exactly say when dry spell and drought conditions would occur,” Lucero said while recognizing other government agencies and local governments who constantly share their daily weather forecasts to the public online.
He said that as early as March last year, increasing sea surface temperatures at the central and eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean have been observed, indicating an El Niño phenomenon. This has fully evolved into an El Niño, PAGASA announced in July last year.
Joel Rudinas, a former Department of Agriculture (DA) assistant secretary and currently consultant at DA’s Regional Field Office for Northern Mindanao, confirmed that they have been utilizing the El Niño advisories from PAGASA in policy discussions and even during interactions with farmers.
Rudinas said that other than the latest information from PAGASA, they are also utilizing historical data where the southern part of Bukidnon and western side of Misamis Oriental traditionally would suffer the brunt of dry spell or drought.
He said about 15,000 hectares of farmlands in Northern Mindanao that dependent on rainwater as well as from communal irrigation and National Irrigation Administration (NIA)-assisted water systems are likely to be affected. These are in Bukidnon, Lanao del Sur, Misamis Occidental, and Misamis Oriental provinces.
Measures to minimize the devastating effects of dry conditions have already been disseminated to farmers associations in the region, one of these was for resetting of the crop calendar by moving the planting schedule a month earlier so that harvesting could be done early in March, according to the DA RFO-10 adviser.
The usual cropping calendar for palay starts in September for the first semester (or dry season) and April for the second semester (or wet season). Usually, it takes 100 to 120 days for the entire palay planting season.
Rudinas said that another strategy to cut on losses in irrigated farmlands is to reduce the hectarage to be planted, enough only for what can be irrigated and that be sustained until harvest time.
He said that by cultivating and planting less, the cost of damage by dry spell would also less, even as he advised farmers to register with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) for recovery of investments if what they planted have been verified to have been damaged due to El Niño.
Those who are dependent on rainwater, his advice was to minimize tillage by harrowing only where seeds or seedlings are to be planted. During corn harvests, do not remove the entire stalk so that these collectively could mulch the ground, thus reducing soil moisture evaporation.
The strategy of resetting of palay calendar about a month earlier was corroborated by NIA Northern Mindanao Operation Section Chief Pol Pablito Gamotin and that some farmers in their assisted irrigation systems had their planting time in December, thus harvesting for them would be early March.
Gamotin said they have been assisting members of various Irrigators Association in the region who direct manage, operate, and maintain some 50,418 hectares of farmlands, mostly for palay production, contributing to the estimated 85-percent rice sufficiency of Northern Mindanao.
Earlier in the forum, Assistant Regional Director Gilbert Conde of the Office of Civil Defense in Northern Mindanao, announced that the Regional Task Force on El Niño has already been reactivated by virtue of Executive Order No. 53 that was issued by President Ferdinand Marcos on Friday, January 19, this year.
He said they shall be coordinating with several agencies to make sure that risks which the El Niño phenomenon pose will not become a disaster.
The OCD, he said, is mandated under E.O. 53 to provide administrative and technical support to the task force which, at the national level, is chaired by the secretary of the Department of National Defense and co-chaired by the Department of Science and Technology. Its members are the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, and the National Economic and Development Authority. Task Force El Niño is under the Office of the President. (MT)
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