DA continues to assist farmers amid El Niño

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture continues to assist farmers with technical training, among others, to help them cope with the adverse effects of the El Niño.

“We can’t do anything [to stop] the El Niño phenomenon because the climate change is a natural problem. The only remedy we have is to pray (for rain) and to help farmers cushion the effects of El Niño to their crops and livestock,” DA-RFU 7 Regional Executive Director Ricardo Oblena said.

Meanwhile, in preparation for the wet season, the DA is also helping the farmers prepare the seeds of main crops to be planted as soon as the wet season starts, expectedly next month or in July.  

Oblena told The Freeman that the DA has provided mitigation measures for vegetation of farmers such as cloud seeding, provision of shallow tube wells and open source pump irrigation systems.

For livestock raisers, the DA taught farmers how to handle health problems of the animals and detect early symptoms of animal diseases.

In the first quarter official report of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Agriculture Secretary Bernie Fondevilla said the department’s task force dealing with the impact of the El Niño has earmarked an initial P882.18 million for the accelerated implementation of mitigation measures for farmers and fisherfolk in 14 provinces in Luzon and Visayas.

Despite the onslaught of the El Niño, the country’s agriculture sector managed to grow by 2.84-percent in the first quarter of the year. The livestock and poultry subsectors posted growth by 0.51-percent and 2.02-percent, respectively. Crops like coconut, mango, tobacco, cabbage, cassava and onion also gained in the same period. The gains of these crops however were not enough to offset the losses from palay and corn, which were estimated to be at 300 thousand metric tons and 175 thousand metric tons, respectively. Onion gained the biggest growth in the crops subsector with an output increase of 11.22-percent.       

Fondevilla said the impact of the dry spell on agricultural products would have been worse had the department failed to realign its budget. The DA allocated 86-percent of its 47-billion budget to various support services such as the provision of flatbed dryers; corn drying centrals; fishports; and storage warehouses for farm product; market linkages; strengthening of regulatory and disease eradication capabilities; and the establishment of satellite-based remote sensing and geographic information systems.

The DA has also strengthened its statistics and forecasting capabilities aside from developing and distributing climate-ready crops seeds, which are drought and disease tolerant.