ILOILO – Due to the high possibility of an El Niño dry spell, the Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) advised farmers not to plant palay this first three months of 2019. The phenomenon may delay the rainy season and incur damage to agriculture, especially to water-intensive crops such as rice and corn.
According to PAO chief Ildefondo Toledo, farmers should instead plant alternative, high-value crops that do not need as much water as palay such as bulb onions and watermelons.
Planting palay this first quarter may not be a good idea, he said, because the El Niño could peak in April.
The cycle of rice is between 90 to 120 days (around four months). But the planting process itself begins with leveling, rolling and preparing the field, flooding, planting / airdropping the seed and fertilizing.
“Farmers should not insist on planting rice, most especially this summer kay ang humay iya kinahanglan gid sang damo nga tubig,” stressed Toledo.
The intermittent rain that the province experiences right now are simply brought by a low pressure area that could become a storm, he added.
Toledo further advised farmers to register with their respective municipal agriculture offices to avail themselves of crop insurance from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
“At least may makuha sila nga crop insurance kag mahimu nila nga magamit sa pag-establish sang ila mga crops,” said Toledo.
In its Climate Outlook for the year, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) stated that the probable occurrence of El Niño may usher in hotter days on the first quarter of 2019 and may affect 47 provinces, including those in Western Visayas.
Western Visayas is made up of the provinces of Iloilo, Antique, Aklan, Capiz, Guimaras, and Negros Occidental.
According to Pagasa, the first months of the year will likely be more sweltering compared to the same period in 2018 because of lessened rainfall and dry winds caused by the phenomenon.
The public should conserve water as early as now, the state weather bureau advised, noting that the dry spell has 70 to 80 percent chance of occurring.
Pagasa described drought as three consecutive months of way below normal rainfall (60 percent reduction from average) or five consecutive months of below normal rainfall condition (21 percent to 60 percent reduction from average).
A “dry spell” is defined as three consecutive months of below normal rainfall (21 percent to 60 percent reduction from average) or two months of consecutive way below normal rainfall (more than 60 percent reduction from average).
Dry condition is defined as having two consecutive months of below normal rainfall (21-60 percent drop in average rainfall)./PN
