Water shortage to bring down palay output

CABANATUAN CITY—Low irrigation water supply in dams in Nueva Ecija province may reduce rice production this coming dry season.

“We need more strong rains to augment the low water level at the Pantabangan Dam and other smaller dams to supply the needs of at least 123,000 hectares [of farm lands in Nueva Ecija and parts of Bulacan and Pampanga provinces],” said Florentino David, manager of Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems (UPRIIS).

Water release

Pantabangan Dam is set to release irrigation water on Dec. 4 but the present supply could serve only 91,000 ha of rice fields, he said.

As of Wednesday, the Pantabangan Dam reservoir level was 201.55 meters above sea level, lower than the desired level of 207 masl. That leaves 32,000 ha of farms “unserviceable by irrigation this year,” David said, adding that poor irrigation may mean a loss of 4.8 million cavans of palay.

Rains brought by Tropical Storm “Ramil” (international name: Damrey) last week added about 2 m of water to Pantabangan Dam’s 8,000-ha reservoir, UPRIIS operations manager, Alvin Manuel, said in a report.

More storms

At that rate, Pantabangan would require at least three more storms of Ramil’s strength until December to generate enough irrigation supply, Manuel said.

In 2016, farmers produced an average of 150 cavans a hectare, according to Evelyn Santos, rice program coordinator in Nueva Ecija.

But some farmers have produced yields of as much as 250 to 300 cavans a hectare during the dry season cropping. Last year, Edgardo Marcelo of Guimba town in Nueva Ecija harvested 297 bags (each measuring 60 kilograms of palay) from a hectare of rice farm. —ANSELMO ROQUE