CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Farm losses due to prevailing La Nińa phenomenon characterized by beyond normal rainfall that could cause flooding in low-lying farmlands can be minimized, if not totally avoided, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Northern Mindanao said. Maria Lydia A. Echavez, director of the ATI Regional Training Center 10, said the trainings they conduct for farmers already include time-tested practices, innovations, and technologies to address the hazards of extreme weather conditions such as La Nińa and El Nińo.
MindanaoToday.com | ATI prepares farmers to cut La Nińa impactV
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Farm losses due to prevailing La Nińa phenomenon characterized by beyond normal rainfall that could cause flooding in low-lying farmlands can be minimized, if not totally avoided, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Northern Mindanao said.
Maria Lydia A. Echavez, director of the ATI Regional Training Center 10, said the trainings they conduct for farmers already include time-tested practices, innovations, and technologies to address the hazards of extreme weather conditions such as La Nińa and El Nińo.
Echavez said the region’s best farming practices are in their 190 certified learning sites for agriculture (LSAs), dubbed as schools of practical agriculture (SPAs), spread across five provinces. These are ran by successful farmers amid threats of adverse weather due to the global climate emergency.
She said that aside from modifying the planting calendar due to La Nińa, farmers in Northern Mindanao have long been adopting Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) system that protects the crops, prevents soil erosion, and optimize soil fertility.
With the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the ATI, she said, has been promoting the use of flood-tolerant rice varieties in low-lying areas that are likely to be inundated due to beyond normal rainfall.
Since 2016, PhilRice has introduced six new rice varieties that can withstand up to two weeks of submergence. These also have strong steams that can endure strong winds of between 40 to 60 kilometers per hour.
One of these is Submarino 1 (NSIC Rc194) which can survive, grow and develop even after 10-14 days of submergence or completely under water during the rainy season.
PhilRice also advised farmers to reduce fertilizer application at this time because while it is beneficial to the plant, this could result to lodging or permanent dislocation of palay stems when these were blown by winds and later submerged.
On January 6, this year, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) announced the onset of La Nińa as indicated by periods of cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the equatorial Pacific Ocean since September 2024.
PAGASA said this weather condition is expected to persist and further strengthened reaching the La Niña conditions threshold starting in December 2024 until March this year, marked by higher chances of above-normal rainfall which may cause floods, flashfloods, and rain-induced landslides.
The weather bureau also said that an increased chance of tropical cyclone activity—more than 20–within the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) during the period is likely.
In another statement, the Department of Agriculture said that La Niña can significantly damage agriculture primarily through excessive rainfall, leading to flooding which can inundate farmlands, destroy crops, and disrupt planting cycles.
This often cause significant losses in rice (palay) production, with potential impacts on other crops as well and the increased flooding also raises concerns about post-harvest losses and the spread of pests and diseases.
It further detailed La Niña’s impact, the most prominent which is excessive rain, which can cause widespread flooding, damaging crops and hindering access to farmlands. Flooding can lead to crop losses due to waterlogging, root rot, and hindered plant growth, thus resulting to rice production decline.
Heavy rains can disrupt planting schedules and make harvesting difficult, further impacting yields. Excessive moisture can create favorable conditions for pests and diseases to spread, further affecting crop health.
ATI is now on its 38th year while ATI Northern Mindanao is on its 36th as the country’s capacity builder, knowledge bank, and catalyst of the country’s agriculture industry which, undoubtedly, is the backbone of the Philippine economy. [Uriel Quilinguing/MT]
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