FARMERS URGED TO ADJUST CROPPING CALENDER TO MITIGATE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
NIA, DA-Cordillera strengthen convergence to sustain food security
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet
Farmers especially in rice producing areas in the Cordilleras urged to adjust cropping calendar to be able to help mitigate the negative
impacts of climate change in rice production. Climate change, with its increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like droughts and typhoons, can disrupt planting calendars and damage crops, impacting double dry cropping. Government records showed billions worth of agricultural products , infrastructure and farm lands were destroyed due to extreme weather conditions . In the region, more than 700 hectares in Tabuk and Pinukpuk, Kalinga, and Quezon, Isabela under the Upper Chico River Irrigation System (UCRIS) were planted earlier as farmers try to adopt the double-dry scheme to avoid typhoon months, based on NIA-CAR release.
‘NIA Administrator Eddie Guillen said that the adjustment of the planting calendar aims to establish a double dry season cropping cycle, followed by a longer fallow period during the rainy and typhoon season, when farmers could plant cash crops in lieu of rice.’ Studies and field tests show that rice yields are generally higher during the dry season as longer sunshine promotes better crop growth. Further, water availability can be efficiently controlled through irrigation, and more importantly avoid crop damage from too much rain, floods and typhoons. Double dry or the two dry cropping seasons involves adjustments in the traditional cropping calendar to “squeeze in” two rice crops in the dry months to avoid palay losses during typhoon period.
Double dry cropping, while it boost rice yields, faces several challenges –water management, soil health, and market access. Recently, regional line agencies of DA and NIA conducted a coordination meeting aimed to synchronize agricultural activities of both departments to improve production and yield of farmers’ and fishers’ in the region. NIA-CAR Regional Manager Benito Espique Jr. provided DA-CAR with the needed information on the present irrigation systems and status of irrigation development (SID) in the region. “Our meeting with the officials of DA-CAR is very timely because we can now strengthen our coordination by sharing timely and pertinent information with regard to the scheduled releasing of water in the different water systems in the region that would assist farmers in their planting schedules,’ Espique states in DA-CAR release.
‘And reconciling RSBSA and Irrigators Association (IA) data with regard to Intervention Monitoring Cards (IMC) and other services under IMC, access to financial loans and assistance coming from partners agencies, aside from other resource services of both
agencies supporting the agricultural sector,” Espique added .
Primo Agatep/ABN
