A REGIONAL seasonal climate outlook and advisory from the Department of Agriculture Field Office 1 reported that El Niño will likely delay the rice planting calendar in Region 1, including Pangasinan, and will severely affect lives of farmers and their families .

The advisory acknowledged that based on the forecast, the Ilocos Region will generally experience way below to normal rainfall condition from April to September ranging from 31.2 mm to 106.1 mm.

The forecasted rainfall in the  region in the months of April to August, will be below normal ranging from 43.9 mm to 79.8 mm.

Thus, land preparation may not be favorable in the month of May, 2023 for all the rainfed areas.

It called on farmers that before planting, they must ensure that there will be a source  of water for irrigation especially in the months of April to May.

Lowland rice at the flowering stage will be extremely sensitive to water shortage (below saturation), resulting in fewer grains.

Worse, the below rainfall conditions may affect corn crop from seedling to flowering  stage, resulting to susceptibility to insect pest especially Fall Army Worm (FAW) and Corn Plant Hopper (CPH).

Because of El Niño, saltwater intrusion can be a threat and prevalent during the dry months for both coastal agriculture and freshwater fisheries.

DA FO1 called on farmers to apply technology-based farm operations to at least cope with the impact of El Niño, i.e., use of Alternative Wetting and Drying and consider the changing of planting method from puddled transplanting or non-puddled transplanting or dry-direct seeding. (Leonardo Micua)

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