CEBU CITY — Even if, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the long dry weather phenomenon, El Niño would most likely be moderate this year, the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s Region 7 Office is not taking any chances and is preparing measures to mitigate its effects on agriculture in the region.

DA7 Regional Technical Director Angel C. Enriquez in a press statement said that since El Niño is expected to affect cropping in the first semester of this year, the agricultural sector in Central Visayas has already set up its preventive measures to mitigate the harmful effects of the predicted dry spell as early as December last year.

It can be recalled that Central Visayas is among the 24 identified areas in the country considered "moderately vulnerable" to the El Nino phenomenon expected to hit the province of Bohol and some parts of Negros Oriental.

Bohol, which is considered the rice capital of the region, an estimated 3,788 hectares of rice lands will be affected by El Niño-caused drought.

Meanwhile, El Niño is expected to reduce corn-planted areas by 2,671 hectares, resulting to an estimated production loss of 6,674 metric tons. Most of these affected corn areas are situated in the provinces of Bohol and Negros Oriental.

In Cebu, the Provincial Agriculturist Office has also earlier strongly recommending the adoption of mitigating measures to help minimize El Niño’s effects on particularly small farmers in various municipalities.

Further, Enriquez disclosed that DA7 has already lined-up its strategic plans to cushion the damage on rice production in the region through the GMA Rice program with the establishment of 844 units of shallow tube wells and pump irrigation system open-source (PISOS), restoration or rehabilitation of seven existing irrigation systems and distribution of drought-resistant varieties such as PSB Rc 68 intended for the some 125 hectares affected rice areas.

Moreover, the DA7 has also set-up strategies designed to combat the effects of El Niño in corn-producing areas which will include the distribution of 6,000 bags of seeds of drought-tolerant corn seed varieties, encouraging farmers to plant sweet potato and cassava as corn intercrop by distributing planting materials to be planted in 70 hectares throughout the region. At the same time, the agency will also conduct four batches of training on corn production for farmers and retooling of corn technicians.

Other preventive measure to reduce the harmful effects of El Niño include the distribution of 100,000 trichogramma cards for the control of corn borer in an estimated 2,000 hectares of corn-planted areas in provinces of Cebu, Bohol, and Negros Oriental.

Measures to counter the ill effects of El Niño in the livestock sector include the promotion of technologies on silage production, utilization of farm byproducts and other feed resources such as mineral protein supplementation and animal health protection.

According to the DA7 office, the said interventions are expected to cover approximately 1 million animal population valued at R5,000,000 in threatened areas.