LAOAG CITY—Drought-stricken
farmers in this part of northern Philippines thank heavens for the amount of
rain it poured for the past few days here.
“It’s a blessing for us to
have this much awaited rainfall. I don’t think La Niña will have a significant
impact on us (farmers). It’s more of a favorable weather as we can now start
planting,” said Angel Padron, chairman of the Provincial Agriculture and
Fisheries Council in Ilocos Norte who is also a seed grower in the province.
Unlike in previous years
where the impact of El Niño was not significantly felt by farmers here, he said
that this year’s prolonged drought affected their source of income.
“We were not able to plant
(high value crops and vegetables) this summer because of drought,” Padron said
citing this was further aggravated by still not repaired irrigation system by
the National Irrigation Administration at Brgy. Salsalamagui in Vintar, Ilocos
Norte, which is affecting the north main canal such as in Vintar, Bacarra and
Pasuquin towns.
As the current El Niño
continue to weakens in the tropic Pacific, the Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) earlier announced
the possibility of La Niña that now slowly taking place in some parts of Luzon.
A La Niña event, according to
the weather bureau is characterized by a persistent cooler than average sea
surface temperature anomalies (below -0.5 °C) over the tropical Pacific.
Rainfall assessment for the
month of April showed that most parts of the country received way below to
below normal rainfall except for the provinces of Compostela Valley, Agusan del
Sur, North Cotabato, Pangasinan, Cavite, Rizal, and Metro Manila where above
normal to near normal rainfall were observed. Further analysis showed that 23
provinces including Ilocos Norte were affected by dry spell while 28 provinces,
mostly from Mindanao, experienced drought conditions in April.
To date, farmers in Ilocos
Norte took advantage of the favorable weather and they already started to plant
rice this cropping season. (Leilanie G. Adriano)
Comments
Post a Comment