Plant during dry days, DA chief urges farmers

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. Inquirer file photo

Since there can be no changing the weather or blocking typhoons, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has turned to the farmers to make the necessary adjustments to their planting schedules.

Alcala said farmers should plant more crops in the dry season to minimize damage and losses, which occur when the typhoons come in the second half of the year.

Alcala said the Department of Agriculture (DA) would be setting up mechanisms in the countryside to ensure that more and more farmers take advantage of dry season cropping.

At present, Alcala said, 60 percent of the annual rice crop is grown during the wet season, when there is water for the rice paddies.

The rest is grown in the first half of the year, which is the dry season.

The problem with planting in the dry season is the lack of water to feed the rice plants, Alcala said.

But planting during the wet months turns into a gamble for farmers, particularly in Luzon, once the typhoons start coming.

Alcala also urged farmers in flood-prone areas to plant rice varieties that can thrive in submerged conditions.

One variety called “submarino” can still grow even after being completely submerged for 10 days in its early stage, he said.

“If you know that you are prone to flooding, then this is what you should plant. Don’t gamble anymore,” Alcala said.

DA data showed the recent typhoons that inundated crop lands in Luzon damaged nearly one billion metric tons of palay or unmilled rice.

Milled, the rice lost to Typhoons “Egay,” “Falcon,” “Juaning,” “Mina,” “Pedring” and “Quiel” would have totaled 586,544 metric tons.

The losses constituted 9.13 percent of the total projected palay output of 9.88 million metric tons for July to December this year, the DA data showed.

Because of the losses, the DA might downgrade its fourth quarter projections, department officials said.

Alcala said the DA would construct more irrigation facilities as part of the plan to enable farmers to plant more crops during the dry months.

In the next two years, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) plans to irrigate 250,000 hectares to increase the number of croppings a farmer can have a year.

The NIA has a budget of P24.7 billion for 2012.

“This will make the Philippines rice sufficient by 2013,” NIA head Antonio Nangel said recently.

Government efforts to meet irrigation targets have suffered due to delays in the release of funds.

Nangel said that, so far, irrigation projects had been completed in only 28 percent of the 33,344 hectares of new areas targeted in 2011.