LINGAYEN– With the mild El Niño being experienced in the country, the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) has already lined up possible interventions in case the rains do not come as expected this month.

Dr. Valentino Perdido, officer-in-charge at the DA Region 1, said last week that cloud seeding may become necessary if the effects of El Niño continues.

In case the mild El Niño worsens, the agency will distribute the green super rice, the rice variety which is drought-tolerant as well as the climate change resilient variety seeds particularly to areas vulnerable to El Niño.

Perdido said the planting season has just started and the impact of the El Niño situation could only be rightly assessed between July and August.

Today, small water impounding projects could not be of much help because it is dependent on rainfall.

“If there is no rainwater impounded, nothing can be used for irrigation purpose,” he said.

There will also be seed distributions as buffer seeds in times of calamities and high breeds seeds in irrigated areas, he added.

High breed seeds to be planted this wet season will cover 64,000 hectares in the region, of which 32,000 hectares are in Pangasinan.

Last year, the region has produced a total of 1.79 million metric tons palay last year, accounting to 181% sufficiency level.

“The province of Pangasinan alone has 194% sufficiency level contribution,” he said, citing Pangasinan is the third top rice-producing province in the country, next to Isabela and Nueva Ecija.

According to Nestor Batalla, assistant provincial agriculturist, Pangasinan has an average harvest of 4.89 tons per hectare or 97.8% in the irrigated areas and only 92% in non-irrigated areas.

Meanwhile, he added that the Accelerated Palay Seeds Production and Distribution (ACSPD) project of the provincial government of Pangasinan since 2011, the only one of its kind in the entire nation, continuous to help farmers in their production.

It distributes certified palay seeds on cash basis at a 50% subsidized cost.

Perdido also disclosed there are two projects of small scale irrigation systems as small impounding dams in Pangasinan worth P20 million and P15 million will be implemented in Umingan and Balungao in addition to the rehabilitation of the diversion dam/canal in Natividad.

He said the distribution of farm equipment and machineries is set this month until July. (Johanne Macob/Tita Roces)

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