The El Niño phenomenon and external price and supply shocks are the major challenges facing farmers and food producers next year, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said over the weekend.
“We have a big mission next year—a very big mission. And all eyes, the entire nation’s, are upon us,” Laurel said, as he highlighted the possible effects of drought on agricultural output, and the impact of export bans on commodity prices.
To address these problems, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will focus on “more production, less cost,” Laurel said.
“Let’s perform, prove our critics wrong, and deliver on our mandate,” he added.
Laurel emphasized the importance of the DA’s mission to stabilize prices and benefit both farmers and consumers. He called for everyone’s cooperation to fulfill President Marcos’ target of increased agricultural output.
This year, exporting nations like India banned exports of rice while other countries stockpiled food in preparation for El Nino. The tighter supply drove commodity prices higher.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has warned of a strong El Niño episode that could affect 65 of the 81 provinces by May, with the possibility of moderate to severe drought—a condition where rainfall is below normal for three consecutive months—hurting those areas.
A prolonged dry spell would hurt food production, especially water-dependent rice, the country’s food staple.
The DA has started to carry out programs to deal with the adverse effects of the expected drought by strengthening irrigation facilities, adopting alternative rice planting methods that require less water, animal dispersal, and providing alternative livelihood to farmers and fishers.
The DA is a member of the El Niño Task Force created by President Marcos to mitigate the impact of the weather phenomenon.
The National Irrigation Administration (NIA), meanwhile, has stepped up preparations to address drought in Nueva Ecija, the country’s rice granary.
The NIA Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems (UPRIIS) said cloud seeding, alternate wetting and drying technology, dry land preparation and the use of maturing varieties of rice are several of its contingency measures to ease the impact of drought in Nueva Ecija.
NIA has tapped the Philippine Rice Research Institute to educate the farmers.
The NIA-UPRIIS aims to irrigate 14,000 hectares of farmland this dry cropping season from December 2023 until April 2024.
An estimated 8,000 out of 22,474 hectares of its covered farmland are affected by the drought.
The 967.19-hectare Balbalungao Small Reservoir Irrigation Project can irrigate 500 to 900 hectares of farmland.
NIA administrator Eduardo Guillen said the alternate wetting and drying system uses up to 30 percent less water than the usual irrigation method, wherein water is applied to a field intermittently with several days in between cycles.
The government’s cash-for-work programs would be available to farmers heavily affected by dry spells and droughts, he added.
Apart from Nueva Ecija, the state weather bureau said 28 provinces, including Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, and Quezon, could experience dry spells.
At least 45 provinces, including Cavite, may face drought conditions by March next year.
NIA Region 6 says its irrigation systems and facilities are ready for the peak of El Niño to last until the end of the wet cropping season in February or March 2024.
The current irrigation water supply is sufficient to last through the cropping season, it said.
Despite projections of a stronger drought next year, Region 6, except for the province of Antique, is not expected to be severely affected.
With most rice crops in the Visayas nearing harvest, the demand for water has also gone down.
