The Department of Agriculture (DA) is constantly monitoring the impact of El Niño in Bicol through drone technology as farmers pray for rain across several provinces to avert heftier production losses.
DA-Bicol spokesperson Lovella Guarin said the drones are useful in providing real-time data in terms of damage assessment, farm planning, mapping, seeding, spraying and overall crop health analysis.
Guarin reported that the prevailing cold and warm winds as well as shear line in the region somehow provide temporary relief to farmers who are reeling from the effects of the dry spell.
The drought was projected to impact more than 113,000 hectares of agricultural lands with high value crops such as rice and corn due to below normal rainfall conditions over the past two months.
In Cawayan, Masbate there are already 1,120 hectares of rice lands affected, 1,025 hectares of which are totally damaged or with no chance of recovery while only 95 hectares are partially damaged. Production loss is estimated at P70,605,000, affecting 730 farmers in the province.
In Albay, 425.4 hectares of farmlands dried up due to El Niño, according to Mayor Adrian Salceda of Polangui. In a recent Facebook post, he said four towns in the third district of Albay—the province’s rice granary—are dealing with drought including his municipality, Libon, Oas, and Pio Duran.
Salceda, who is also the president of the League of Mayors in Albay, said he already brought this matter to the attention of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel. The two had a meeting last January 25.
Seeing that the situation could persist until the end of May, the DA allocated P725 million to mitigate the impact of El Niño to the affected Bicol farmers.Guarin explained that P625 million of this budget would be channeled to the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) while P71.74 million would be downloaded to DA-Bicol.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) recently reported that drought-induced agricultural damage nationwide already reached more than one billion pesos.