What’s the weather? Ask a farmer

Is it going to rain? Farmers will soon have the answer.

Farmers in Irosin, Sorsogon, who are in the path of typhoons, and two other towns would soon provide weather information such as rainfall and humidity to the weather bureau in Manila.

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the mayors of Irosin; Gerona, Tarlac, and Tubigon, Bicol,  signed a memorandum of agreement on Monday on the setting up of automatic weather stations (AWS) in their municipalities.

The Local Government Units and Pagasa also committed to share the scientific information they would gather.  This would give Pagasa  more accurate information on local weather systems.

On the other hand,  the mayors said they were pioneering climate information and forecasting for agriculture to give them sufficient warning of extreme weather conditions to be able to build defenses against destruction to lives and properties.

Irosin Mayor Eduardo Ong said: “We really need this weather station. We are the rice granary of the province. Sometimes we don’t know how much rain is going to fall and when.”

“We need the information to help our farmers, so we can tell them when to harvest,” he added.

The information  on rainfall is also important as it would help irrigators determine when to release water so as to avoid flooding.

Ong noted that the weather in  recent years had become unpredictable. In the past, the rains came during the months of June and July like clockwork. But recently, heavy downpours  lasted for days in January.  “We couldn’t plant,” Ong said.

Agriculture officials said having accessible data on the weather would boost farmers’ resiliency and lessen their risks against climate change.

Farmers often complain that severe weather warnings are slow to reach them, leaving them with little time to harvest or save their crops before a storm swooped in. The DA said the most basic AWS for agriculture costs between P30,000 and P50,000.

The establishment of weather stations in key agriculture areas is part of the Rice Watch and Action Network (R1)  project to integrate climate change into local agriculture management.