The government is set to spend billions of pesos as it prepares for an emergency food aid program for one million rural families projected to suffer from the devastating effects of the El Niño phenomenon that has affected many agricultural areas.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the task force in charge of the El Niño mitigation program is working with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Nutrition Council on the mechanics of the food aid program.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration identified an initial 25 provinces that have been experiencing below normal rainfall since the August-December 2009 period.

Among the drought-stricken provinces pinpointed by PAGASA are Benguet, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Batangas, Iloilo, Antique, Guimaras, Capiz, Negros Occidental, Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino.

"Alongside this food aid, the task force is also studying such mitigation programs as livelihood projects and farm input subsidies for farmers who can no longer plant at this point as a result of the prolonged dry spell," Yap said.

Yap said the DA is fine-tuning its aid package to include livelihood projects along with seed and fertilizer subsidies to enable farmers to plant immediately once the dry spell ends.
The DA started cloud-seeding operations in January but this has been largely futile due to the absence of clouds that could be seeded.

"If we go full blast on cloud seeding operations even in the absence of seedable clouds, then the DA will just be wasting precious funds on airplane fuel and salt," he said.

The DA has also been providing affected farmers with water pumps to help them draw water from shallow sources, he said, but this also failed since aquifers and interstitial sources have dried up.

The department will continue to monitor critical drought areas as well as provide guidance to the National Disaster Coordinating Council during regional visits while the National Irrigation Administration has been tasked to optimize water delivery to affected farms.

Earlier, Yap ordered DA field officials to work with local government units for the speedy distribution of assistance to palay and corn farmers in Isabela, Cagayan and other drought-hit provinces. The aid package includes seeds, open source pumps and other equipment.

In a report to Yap, Director Andrew Villacorta of the Regional Field Unit in Northern Luzon said the worst hit areas in his region are Isabela and Cagayan, where losses have already reached P1.984 billion from projected losses of 180,987 MT from palay and corn crops in 147,537 hectares of farms.

As earlier ordered by Yap and Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla, chairman of the task force on El Niño mitigation measures, RFUs started carrying out intervention measures in January, including cloud-seeding operations with the help of Aboitiz Corp. covering the Magat Dam, and the distribution of an initial 95 units of open source pumps through RFU 2 and the NIA-Magat River Integrated Irrigation System.

Villacorta said RFU 2 purchased rodenticides and insecticides as early as December and has treated 10,523 hectares as a preemptive measure against possible outbreaks of tungro and other diseases.

He said the RFU is set to distribute 25,000 packets of vegetable seedlings and has bid out the contract for the supply of another P10 million in vegetable seedlings for distribution to farmers.

Also, the RFU is negotiating for the acquisition of open source pumps and has started providing fuel subsidies to farmers who use water pumps, Villacorta added.