DRY FARM. A rice land in the municipality of Sibalom dries up as an effect of the El Niño phenomenon in this photo taken on Thursday (Jan. 4, 2024). An agriculture official in Antique said Thursday (Jan. 4, 2024) that an initial buffer of 1,200 bags of certified rice seeds and 400 bags of Urea fertilizer is available at their warehouse in San Jose de Buenavista ready for distribution to farmers affected by the El Niño. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Department of Agriculture (DA) 6 (Western Visayas) has a buffer stock of certified rice seeds and fertilizers to aid Antique farmers affected by the El Niño phenomenon, which is forecast to take its toll in the first quarter of 2024.
Sonie Guanco, head of the Agriculture Program Coordinating Office in Antique, said an initial 1,200 bags of certified rice seeds and 400 bags of Urea fertilizer are stocked at the warehouse of the Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) in Barangay Badiang, San Jose de Buenavista ready for distribution and planting in the next cropping season.
“We had turned over the buffer stock to the OPA so it could be easily distributed through the Municipal Agriculture Officers (MAOs) to the farmers,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
A farmer with a one-hectare farmland is qualified to have a bag of free seeds and another bag of fertilizer.
Aside from the DA intervention, Guanco said, the local government units have their respective El Niño phenomenon mitigating plans and support to farmers.
“Although we are still waiting for damage reports from the MAOs, we have been informed by some farmers that there is now a lack of water on their farmlands as an effect of the El Niño phenomenon,” he said.
Guanco added that during the El Niño, farmers could plant common crops that are drought-tolerant, such as camote and vegetables, especially in rain-fed areas. (PNA)
