Capitol distributes water pumps to farmers
BETTER late than never.
Help from the provincial government for farmers affected by the current El Niño condition has come a bit too late, but the beneficiaries are nonetheless grateful for the chance to save some of their crops.
Gov. Amado Espino Jr. turned over last week 200 portable water pumps to the irrigators association of the province and another 300 will be distributed as soon as these are delivered.
The initial 200 pumps, each with a 5-horsepower engine capacity that can serve 3-5 hectares, were distributed to farmers in central and eastern Pangasinan where cornfields have been severely affected by the dry spell.
In eastern Pangasinan, about 80 percent of the 17,000 hectares of rice farms are already beyond recovery, according to Junjun Macaraeg, president of the Don Alejo Marcos Irrigators Association.
Macaraeg said with the water pumps, they hope to save the remaining 20 percent.
Oftociano Manalo, president of Pangasinan Federation of Irrigators Association, Inc. who received the water pumps from Espino, said access to the water pumps will be rotated among its members.
PRAYER POWER
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has called on the people to offer a special prayer during Masses from March 1 to May 15 to ask for deliverance from the El Niño phenomenon.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas has prescribed an ‘Oratio Imperata’ to deliver us from drought” to be prayed after communion.
The ‘Oratio Imperata’ is posted on the website of the archdiocese.#
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
