About 1.5 million metric tons of palay (unhusked rice) could be lost due to El Niño’s threat to irrigation systems, a projection by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) showed.
Josephine Salazar, NIA officer-in-charge and Deputy Administrator for Engineering and Operations Sector, said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City that the agency has identified areas vulnerable to El Niño, totaling 257,600 hectares of rice lands.
Data provided by the NIA showed that if the estimated 5.83 metric tons (MT) yield per hectare is multiplied by around 260,000 hectares, the projected palay yield loss could be around 1.5 million MT.
Subtracting the estimated 6% palay-to-rice milling loss, the amount of rice output that could be lost due to the dry spell is around 1.46 million MT.
Salazar said the bulk of vulnerable farmlands were in Central Luzon, accounting for 85,000 hectares, followed by Region XII or Soccsksargen with 27,000 hectares, and Region I or Ilocos Region with 24,000 hectares that would be affected by the dry spell.
Other top El Niño-vulnerable regions are Mimaropa (17,000 hectares), Western Visayas (15,000 hectares), Central Visayas (14,000 hectares), and the Zamboanga Peninsula (13,000 hectares).
The Department of Agriculture, NIA’s mother agency currently headed by President Marcos, is proposing the planting of high-yielding crop varieties, which need less water to grow than rice, Salazar said.
The NIA is also implementing a solar-powered irrigation system, as well as an alternate wetting and drying technique, as a water-saving technology that can reduce irrigation water use in rice fields without decreasing yield.
In August, the government sought the aid of private and international groups to tackle strategies in dealing with El Nino.
The state weather bureau PAGASA reported that a moderate El Niño is already present and strengthening along the tropical Pacific, adding there is a “90% chance” that El Niño will persist until the first quarter of 2024.
In 2018, nearly 300,000 farmers were affected by El Niño while agriculture damage amounted to nearly P8 billion.
