Many farmers pray for more typhoons
TO COUNTER EL NINO
LINGAYEN–The agriculture sector in Pangasinan welcomed the monsoon rains intensified by Typhoon “Falcon” as timely because it’s planting season.
This was conveyed by Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay Moya during the “Talakayan sa Kapitolyo” program on July 16 as she pointed out that to date, only 87,000 hectares or 47 percent of the 187,000 hectares of land targeted to be planted during the first cropping season this year, have so far been planted.
This was conveyed by Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay Moya during the “Talakayan sa Kapitolyo” program on July 16 as she pointed out that to date, only 87,000 hectares or 47 percent of the 187,000 hectares of land targeted to be planted during the first cropping season this year, have so far been planted.
She said rice farmers of 100,000 hectares are rainfed farms and depend solely on rains.
Barring any destructive typhoon or continued drought like El Niño, the province is expected to harvest 20 million bags of rice at the end of the harvest season in September.
So while households are bracing themselves for the worst this rainy season, farmers are actually praying for more mild typhoons, Moya added.
She said rice harvest last year could have been more than 21 million bags (1.6 million metric tons) had it not for been for the heavy damage wrought by massive floods last year.
Still, with the 21 million bags rice harvest in 2018, Pangasinan maintained its position as the number one rice producer in Region 1 and the number three throughout the country after Nueva Ecija and Isabela in that order.
Pangasinan, a consistent national rice achiever awardee of the Department of Agriculture, averages 4.5 metric tons per hectare production or 90 bags per hectare. Still, farmers who use hybrid seeds and adopt good farm practices produce up to eight and nine metric tons per hectare.
Preparing for PAGASA’s forecast on El Nino which is expected to last till the end of the year, the provincial government is prepositioning some 777 water pumps across the province to service unirrigated rice lands and rehabilitating 15 communal irrigation systems, Moya added. (Leonardo Micua/Helen Martin)
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