UN agency prepares farmers to deal with prolonged drought
PARCHED Farmer Dante Bagas inspects a paddy in his 3-hectare rice farm that was hit by the dry spell in the village of Burungutan in North Upi town, Maguindanao province, early this year. JEOFFREY MAITEM / Inquirer Mindanao
DAVAO CITY—When the next dry spell hits, farmers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will be ready to deal with its impact.
Farmers in Maguindanao and other ARMM provinces, who suffered heavily when the El Niño weather phenomenon hit the country starting late last year, have started attending training sessions on drought management, improved crop production and resilience to climate stress to prepare them to deal with disaster and the impact of extreme weather, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
The recent training sessions in ARMM formed part of FAO’s expanded El Niño response operations in Mindanao, agency officials said.
In Maguindanao, the dry spell did not only wilt crops but also triggered a rat infestation that damaged hundreds of hectares of farms, said farmer Rahib Mamaluba.
FAO said the training sessions would be replicated in various villages because those who finished these would be tapped to train other farmers.
FAO also distributed seeds to 5,500 farming households in ARMM and Central Mindanao.
Jose Luis Fernandez, FAO representative in the Philippines, said the agency distributed rice, corn and vegetable seeds and fertilizers to farmers in Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao provinces.
“These inputs will allow them to restart their livelihood activities and grow food for household consumption,” Fernandez said.
The Department of Agriculture, FAO said, has estimated that in these four provinces alone, some 101,000 ha of crops, valued at P841.3 million, were destroyed by El Niño between February 2015 and July 2016.
FAO said it would also provide crop, livestock, poultry and fisheries production inputs to 10,475 farming and fishing households in North Cotabato, a province that was also ravaged by drought this year. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao
