NOT less than 630 rice farmers suffered huge crop losses, while 60 banana plantation workers were laid off in a North Cotabato farming town as El Niño’s dry spell zapped the province in Mindanao since March.
Greenpeace noted that records from the Provincial Risk Reduction Management Council of North Cotabato estimate the damage caused by the dry spell to the municipality of M’lang’s rice crops at P42 million. This has already affected an estimated 503 hectares of rice land.
The environmental advocacy group reported that damage to corn in M’lang stands at P2.9 million, with small banana farms reporting the same loss. Rubber tree farms also suffered P1.3 million in damage. Greenpeace quoted Katipunan Barangay Chairman Joelito Tayco as saying “around 60 farm workers were already laid off from their work this week.”
In Barangay New Antique, farmer Nelson Luciano said, “I can usually harvest—from my 2 hectares—around 200 bags, but now I only harvested 130.” Farmers who harvested palay in March experienced lesser yields but the situation was worse in April since they reaped nothing.
Greenpeace witnessed and documented the impacts of a two-month dry spell, coinciding with a weak El Niño, to local agriculture in a recent visit to North Cotabato.
M’lang has been declared under a state of calamity a month after the country’s weather bureau declared the onset of an El Niño in March.
Greenpeace Food and Agriculture Campaigner Wilhelmina Pelegrina said, “I was struck by the number of farms and families already suffering due to the dry spell. Harvests have been reduced or lost, and families are going hungry, reinforcing the urgent need to shift our country’s agriculture system to a more climate-resilient model.”
Pelegrina, who visited North Cotabao recently, expressed fear the situation will deteriorate if help from the Department of Agriculture is not extended, saying calamity has befallen what used to be a very productive town.
“Farmers need our help right now and support from the government and non-governmental organizations is crucial. We need to equip them with timely weather information so they can plan to adjust their farming systems and to adopt ecological farming technologies that work with diversity. Diversified cropping will provide them better protection against future crop losses and help them avoid hunger,” she added.
Rice fields have already been abandoned with the grains that failed to develop.
“The last time we checked with the officials of M’lang, they have yet to define the details of their response plan, while waiting for the release of their calamity fund in the next few days.
“While we agree in the thinking to provide food aid, seeds and organic fertilizers, we strongly urge the Philippine government to step in and set mechanisms for a more climate-resilient ecological farming system,” Pelegrina said. Many areas have resorted to organic farming and ecological agriculture practices, these efforts are still small scale in character.
Greenpeace has asked government and the local the government units and other agencies to work together and set up early-warning systems that farmers can manage since they are directly affected by typhoons, dry spells, El Niño and other extreme weather impacts of climate change.
For one, Pelegrina revealed, Greenpeace is already working with partners in deploying a mobile phone text-messaging service to farmers. “This early information system should be coupled with programs on how farmers could plant diverse crops, raise farm animals and develop livelihood strategies to provide them with some degree of food and livelihood security,” she said.
Image credits: Karlos Manlupig/Greenpeace