DA sets measures to mitigate effects of El Niño

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is implementing P570 million worth of intervention measures for the palay sector to offset the effects of the El Niño dry spell on rice production this year.

This amount is part of the P1.7 billion that the DA will realign from its regular budget in 2010 to carry out measures to reduce the expected production losses in the agriculture sector from a possibly prolonged El Niño weather pattern, Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla said yesterday.

El Niño refers to the unusual warming of sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific that is usually characterized by below-average rainfall, which leads to a dry spell.

Under its 2010 El Niño Mitigation Program, the DA will set aside P613.7 million to carry out intervention for the corn sector; another P411 million for the high value commercial crops (HVCC) sector; and P117.4 million more for fisheries, Fondevilla said.

Of the P570 million fund for palay, Fondevilla said P40 million will be spent on cloud-seeding operations over 342,043 hectares of watershed areas, while the rest of the amount will be used for setting shallow tube wells and pump irrigation system open-source (PISOS) servicing 18,000 hectares of land.

Cloud seeding operations covering 109,880 hectares for the corn sector will cost P12 million, while P601.7 million will be used to purchase and distribute microbial fertilizers for 254,990 hectares of affected corn areas, he said.

For HVCCs, Fondevilla said the DA will set aside P94 million of its P411 million fund for this sector to procure and distribute vegetable seeds covering 22,652 hectares; P142.9 million for 28,599 bags of mango flower inducers; and P173.8 million to build 1,569 units of small scale irrigation facilities.

He said the P117.4-million fund for the fisheries subsector is broken down as follows: P85.3 million in input assistance in the form of 7,500 fish cages; P13.2 million for 950 units of shallow tube wells; and P18.8 million in livelihood assistance for affected fisherfolk.

As early as December last year, the DA had already created a task force to carry out its five-point program to raise crop production.

The task force, which will implement the DA’s El Niño Mitigation Program, will focus on 23 “highly vulnerable” areas and 24 “moderately vulnerable” areas in the country.

Total production losses under a mild El Niño scenario could reach P8.09 billion and P20.46 billion under a severe dry spell, Fondevilla said.

Under a mild El Nino, he said the DA estimates losses of 264,940 metric tons of rice worth close to P4 billion and 174,224 MT of corn valued at P2.26 billion.

The fisheries subsector could lose 21,181 MT of catch worth P1.27 billion, he said, while losses in the HVCC sector could reach 3.17 million MT valued at P583 million under a mild El Niño.

A severe dry spell could lead to losses of 816,372 MT of rice worth P12.24 billion;440,429 MT of corn worth P5.2 billion; 42,362 MT of marine catch worth P2.54 billion; and 3.08 million MT of HVCCs worth 443 million.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) had reported that this year’s El Niño would likely be moderate though.