DAVAO CITY – The country has enough food supply despite the threat of El Niño phenomenon on the agriculture sector this year, President Arroyo assured the nation last Tuesday.

What the government is more concerned about is how to increase the income of farmers and fishermen who may be affected by the dry spell, the President said.

As this developed, the Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (AGAP) warned that financial losses brought by the El Niño phenomenon on the agricultural products of the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela may climb to a staggering P3 billion if the government won’t implement contingency measure to cushion the drought's effects.

Mrs. Arroyo, in a chat with reporters covering her tour in Mindanao Agribusiness super region Tuesday night, said she has ordered Agriculture

Secretary Arthur Yap, chairman of the El Niño task force, to visit Mindanao and other parts of country to look into the needs of the farmers and limit their losses from the drought.

“The most important problem that arises from El Niño is shortage of food, especially rice but that’s taken cared of so therefore our second most important problem, the one we have to address now is really the income of the farmers so we have to support the farmers,” she said.

The President assured there is adequate rice for Filipinos after the National Food Authority (NFA) approved general importation of the national staple to meet the country’s food requirements and keep the prices stable.

“Yap says the food supply is not going to be affected. It's more the farmers’ income rather than food supply of ordinary Filipinos," she added.

The task force was reactivated to prepare a comprehensive plan to mitigate the onslaught of El Niño which is expected to result in billions of pesos in agricultural losses. The task force, headed by the DA, was originally created in 2001.

The agriculture department has already announced its P1.7-billion mitigation program on the ill-effects of El Niño on 23 “highly vulnerable” areas and 24 “moderately vulnerable” areas in the country.

It also warned that the country is enduring a mild case of El Niño this year that could lead P10 billion worth of damage to crops and fisheries unless interventions are implemented. Affected sectors would be rice, corn, vegetables, and fisheries.

Among the measures adopted by the DA to combat drought are cloud seeding in the corn and rice areas, adoption of water management policies especially in the dams, and distribution of shallow tube wells for the farmers.

The agriculture department also plans to give away microbial fertilizers, organic fertilizers for rice and corn farmers, and vegetable seeds for vegetable farmers.

Highly vulnerable areas are Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Cavite, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Capiz, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga City, Sarangani and South Cotabato.

Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Romblon, Sorsogon, Aklan, Antique, Bohol, Samar, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, Bukidnon, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, and Davao City are considered as moderately vulnerable to the El Niño dry weather.

Meanwhile, in a media forum held in Manila, AGAP Party-list Rep. Nicanor Briones said the corn sector in Cagayan and Isabela has already lost some P1.4 billion since the El Niño phenomenon started this month.

He suggested that the government immediately give each corn farmers “water pumps,” on top of the efforts to improve the aging irrigation facilities in all towns under the said provinces.

The lawmaker expressed fears that a continuous losses on the corn farming sector may result in higher prices of products from other equally important agricultural sectors like hog and poultry raising and other livestock business that included fisheries, which rely on corn as feeds.

Briones rejected the practice of the government in importing these products from nearby countries like China and Vietnam, instead of addressing these problems head-on.