El Niño losses seen to reach P700M

By Carla Gomez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:14:00 02/06/2010

Filed Under: Global Warming, Agriculture, Food, Climate Change, Weather

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—The Department of Agriculture (DA) is projecting losses of up to P700 million in rice and corn farms if no steps were taken to reduce the impact of El Niño on farms in Negros Occidental.

Negros Occidental can lose this much in rice and corn produce because the province’s farms have been classified as areas that are highly vulnerable to the El Niño weather phenomenon, according to Remelyn Recoter, DA Western Visayas regional technical director for operations.

The projected production loss covers 7,260 hectares of rice farms that have harvest capacities of up to 25,080 metric tons of palay. At least 32,781 hectares of corn farms with harvest capacities of 30,501 metric tons are vulnerable.

Recoter said the figures, however, are just DA estimates.

P190-M budget

Larry Nacionales, DA regional director, said his office has proposed a budget of P190 million for measures to fight El Niño in Western Visayas. Negros Occidental, Capiz and Iloilo were listed as highly vulnerable areas in the region.

Farmers, Nacionales said, have been advised to shift from rice to vegetative crops to avoid huge losses during the dry spell.

The provincial government of Negros Occidental has started cloud-seeding operations, with a budget of P2.5 million, in 15 towns and cities, said Albert Barrogo, provincial agriculturist.

At least 7,000 hectares of rice farms and 343 hectares of corn farms in Negros Occidental are already drying up, while 28,000 hectares of sugarcane farms in four towns are threatened.

Good side

Not everything about El Niño, however, is bad news.

In Bulacan, officials working on NorthRail said they would take advantage of the dry season to hasten work on the rail project to beat the 2011 deadline to complete its Caloocan to Bulacan line.

Zoilo Andin Jr., president and chief executive officer of the North Luzon Railways Corp., said the lack of rain would be good for the project, especially because soil along sections of the NorthRail in flood-prone Bulacan would be dry and easier to manage.

This condition, he said, would help contractors build stronger foundations for railway and related facilities.

Andin said contractors encountered problems in some areas in Bulacan because of the “weak” soil structure.

Bulacan is unlike areas where the Light Rail Transit (MRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) were built in Metro Manila, where the structures’ pillars were constructed on “hard, rocky ground,” he said.

20% complete

He said the project’s Section 1—to run from Caloocan City to the City of Malolos in Bulacan—is now 20-percent done since NorthRail resumed construction in December last year after it was suspended in 2008.

Under NorthRail’s Phase 1, a railway line built along the old tracks of the Philippine National Railways will run from Caloocan to the Clark Freeport in Pampanga.

NorthRail officials said the Caloocan to Clark line is expected to be completed in the middle of 2012. Upon completion, NorthRail is expected to cut travel time from Metro Manila to Central Luzon by 30 minutes to an hour.

“We are now [taking advantage] of the good weather [to speed up] all our underwater and underground works, especially today that water levels are [low] because of the El Niño,” Andin said.

He said contractors are simultaneously building viaducts in Malolos and Guiguinto and embankments in Balagtas town and Caloocan. With Carmela Reyes, Inquirer Central Luzon

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