Month: April 2019

Several hectares (has.) of rice areas in towns have already been affected with El Nino phenomenon. Evelyn T. Maligsa, head, planning division, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) said that based on the partial consolidated report on damage assessment for rice in the 18 towns of Bohol, a total of 7,615.60 has. are affected; 2,351.66 has. are totally damaged while 2,278.10 has. are partially damaged.

Maligsa said the partial consolidated report came from the municipalities of Buenavista, Jagna, Batuan, Carmen, Alicia, Getafe, Bilar, Duero, Mabini, Bien Unido, Calape, Dagohoy, Balilihan, Sagbayan, Antequera, Garcia Hernandez, Danao and Trinidad. Bien Unido registered the largest damaged area at 992.75 has., while Trinidad registered 524.06 has.

Damaged areas include the rice lands covered by the service areas of dams and communal irrigation system (CIS).

Most of the crops incurring damage are those in rainfed areas, Maligsa concluded.

Engr. Evelyn Putong of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) 7 reported that of the 3,047 has. of operational areas being served by Bayongan Dam in San Miguel there are 9 has. reported damaged and of the 858 has. of operational areas under the Cayapas Dam in Ubay, there are 10 has. reported damaged; while there were no reported damages of the 4,016 has. and 781 has. of operational areas  being served by Malinao Dam in Pilar and Talibon Dam in Talibon respectively.

The statement was issued during the Provincial Coordinating Committee for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCCAF) meeting last Wednesday held at NIA Regional Office 7, Dao District, Tagbilaran City.

In Tubigon, 80 has. was reported damaged of the total 489 has. of operational areas served by CIS, while in Lila 5 has. of the 13 has. of operational areas under the CIS were reported damaged.

Putong also reported the water levels of the four major dams in Bohol as of Tuesday: Malinao Dam; actual 151.94 meters (ms.), at full 152.00ms., critical 146.5ms.; Bayongan Dam: actual 44.00ms., at full-52.00ms., critical 41.00ms.; Capayas Dam: actual 33.27 ms., at full 36.05ms, critical 30.00ms.; Talibon Small Reservoir Irrigation System: actual 25.90ms., at full 30.00ms., critical 21.00ms.

She said that they continue implementing the alternate wetting and drying, daily monitoring of irrigated areas and strict implementation of water delivery schedule, information dissemination and introduction of upland rice variety and other diversified crops for the rice areas.

Putong bared that it is good if there are natural rains to come in June to ensure that the Boholano farmers could plant rice in the next cropping season.

Although we need artificial rain from cloud seeding operations (CSOs), she said the volume of water cannot suffice the needs for land preparation before planting in areas including the rain-fed since cloud seeding prioritizes operations over watershed areas.

The Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) plans to conduct CSOs to save agricultural crops and livestock amid dry spell.

The PGBh has a standby fund of P2.3 million approved and bidded last year and the P25 million allocations from the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) downloaded to the DA-RF07 and ready to be used following bid early this year. (Atoy Cosap)

A large estimated number of 240000 rice farmers (concentrated largely on rice) in Bohol are now facing serious livelihood loss with the impending execution of the new Implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the rice tariffication act.

Due to the visibility of Tourism and trade Commerce, people may have largely ignored the fact that Bohol is still a predominantly agricultural province with the majority of folks living in rural areas and the farmers totaling about 600,000- which is about 46% of the 1.3 million Boholanopopulations.

Because of the shortage in rice last year- that increased the prices of the basic Filipino staple rice, caused inflation to shot up to 6.7% last year and negated the 6.2% GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth of the economy. Rice is a major component of the inflation “food basket”.

President Rodrigo Duterte, thereby, rushed the signing of the Congress-approved rice tariffication Act (RA 11203) which removed all quantitative restrictions on rice importation and basically allows anyone to import as much as they can cheaper rice from abroad. The tariff rate will be 35% from those imported  from the ASEAN region, including that from  Thailand and Vietnam , 40% tax for those within the MAV (Minimum access Volume) and 180% in excess of the MAV.

What this means to rice farmers

The production cost of Philippine produced rice is about ₱11.65 per kilo while those in the ASEAN averaged between ₱20-23 to wholesalers in 2018.

Today, the so-called “parity” price to equal the 35% shield due to the tariff wall will only be ₱17.00 which could mean there would not be too many wholesalers buying RP- produced rice. Besides the price differential between the ₱17.00 and the ₱11.65 production cost is too narrow to make economic sense to farmers.

According to provincial agriculturist Larry Pamugas, representatives of the Department of Agriculture Head Office have already visited Bohol twice to meet with farmer representatives to help save the rice industry.

One area being looked into is the ₱10-billion Rice Competitive Fund in the 2019 National Budget which can be used into ₱5billion for purchase of equipment to partially mechanize the process,₱3billion for seed distribution and ₱1billion each for credit or financing and training.

Boholanofarmers however are lamenting the fact that there is a very slow pace in implementing agricultural initiatives in the country for so long a time. While there are positive indications as to the effective reduction of cost once mechanized as piloted in Ubay, Dimiao and elsewhere farmers still face a long bureaucratic red tape in having these programs fully implemented, according to farmer groups.

As cheap imported rice especially from Thailand and Vietnam flood the market, who will buy the Filipino farmers (numbering about 10 million nationwide) rice produce? How will the boholano rice farmers shift and join the rest of the 460,000 other farmers who are, at least, multi-cropped farmers engaged in corn, vegetable, coconut and fruit growing businesses? One or a combination of them.

Even the 35% tariff proceeds which are also designed to be used to alleviate the plight of the farmers still need to have a budget allocation for 2020 since this is not covered in the 2019 GAA (General Appropriations Act) which itself was also only just recently signed by the Palace after a long tussle between the senate and the lower house due to “pork insertions”.

Because of the rice importation liberalization, prices of rice have dropped which help in bringing down inflation to 3.8 percent recently. That may be good for the 96 million Filipinos but what about the 10 million Filipino rice farmers?

IMPACT ON OTHER INDUSTRIES

Bohol is known to be a “net exporter” of rice in the sense that after satisfying the 115 kilos per capita annual consumption of the rice-eating 1.3 million Boholanos the province is able to sell its surplus rice outside the province.

But with traders likely to prefer to buy and then sell cheaper imported rice from abroad, what happens to the locally –produced rice? What will the role of the National Food Authority under this new regime of liberal rice importation? Has it been budgeted properly in the 2019 GAA to serve NFA’s new found purpose? Or is the existence of the NFA as we know it also in danger together with its numerous NFA rice retailers?

What about the rice millers and warehousing in the province that derive their business from locally produced rice what will they be doing as a going concern? What about the trucking and hauling businesses?

Pamugas has been discussing “subsidies” from the government with Governor Edgar Chatto to make local rice-farming a viable undertaking and compete with the cheap foreign rice brands. These will probably be issues touching on cheap credit, warehousing, insurance, fertilizers and pesticides and the like. Will these be enough to match the landed cost of imported rice?

Furthermore, even without the full brunt of the RiceTarrification act on them, rice farmers are already contending with the fact that some 6,300 hectares in 18 Bohol towns have already been negatively affected by the El Niño Phenomenon.

It is a fact that the “Poverty Level” in Bohol has been slowly reduced to 21% (estimated) through the Rico Aumentado and Chatto regimes.

But with some 240,000 (largely) rice farmers now facing a real economic threat, some measures need to be acted upon swiftly so as not to elevate the poverty level back to a higher plain in the province of Bohol.

It is a daunting challenge for the new set of provincial and congressional officers to hack as they take their oaths of office this coming June –July. (Bingo Dejareco)

The El Niño Task Force in Bohol has recommended to Governor Edgar M. Chatto to push through the planned Cloud Seeding Operation (CSO) in the province of Bohol next month in time for the land preparation of the Boholano farmers for the coming to the wet cropping season in the service ares of the four major dams and rainfed areas in Bohol.

According to Leon Parac  Jr., CSO focal person, the task force conducted an urgent meeting last Mprovinarch 29,2019 presided over by Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry M. Pamugas in his office at the office of the Provincial Agriculturist aimed to provide updates of El Nino Phenomenon which the country and the province of Bohol have been experienced.

Parac said that one of the agenda was about the plan to conduct CSO in Bohol of which they agreed to formally asked the  governor to push through the making of artificial rain using the already approved funds from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office in the tune of P2.3M.

The bidding of the P2.3M provincial budget was already conducted last December 19,2018, and the winning bidder was the Pegasus Air Services based in Manila.

This amount intended for CSOs is in addition to the P2.5M budget from Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) which was already downloaded to Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office (DA-RFO7) and the bidding was already conducted last March 12,2019, and the winning bidder was the Rhoyle Airways based in Negros Oriental.

He said the El Nino Task Force cited several reason after the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical- Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) had reported the forecast models that indicated the weak or even moderate strength El Nino conditions for the March-May season, continuing into June-August and August-October seasons, weakening but not disappearing during October-December 2019 seasons.

Based on PAG-ASA’s outlook for areas potential for dry condition, dry spell and drought the provinces of Bohol, Cebu and Southern Leyte have expressed dry spell starting this month.

The PAG-ASA’s rainfall forecast for the whole country: April 2019- generally way below normal rainfall to below normal rainfall conditions in most parts of the country: May 2019 generally below normal rainfall conditions of Southern Luzon and Visayas while near normal in most parts of Northern Luzon and Mindanao; June 2019- below normal rainfall conditions expected in most parts of Visayas and Mindanao are expected to have near normal rainfall conditions;

July 2019 most parts of Luzon will likely received near- normal rainfall with some patches of above normal rainfall conditions; while near normal rainfall conditions with patches of below normal in Visayas and Mindanao is expected; August 2019- generally below normal rainfall conditions in most parts of Luzon while near normal to above normal in most parts of Visayas and Mindanao are expected; September 2019- generally below normal rainfall conditions in most parts of Luzon while near normal to above normal in most parts of Visayas and Mindanao are expected.

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) also reported that the water elevations of Malinao Dam in Pilar, Bayongan Dam in San Miguel, Capayas Dam in Ubay, Talibon Dam in Talibon are getting lower due to below normal rainfall conditions wherein the existing water are not enough for the coming wet cropping season on May-June 2019.

Evelina P. Putong, Principal Engineer C, NIA7 reported that as of March 28,1019, The water elevations of the four dams were as follows: Malinao Dam; actual 44.88m, at full 52.00m., critical 41.00m; Capayas Dam: actual 33.54m, at full 36.50m, critical 30.00m; Talibon Dam: actual 25.87m, at full 30.00m, critical 21.00m.

Engineer Putong said that NIA7 has been conducting the daily monitoring of irrigated areas and strict implementation of water delivery schedule.

To mitigate the impact of El Nino phenomenon NIA 7 requested for cloud seeding for the next cropping as an intervention of the government to the Boholano farmers. (AtoyCosap)

The El Niño Task Force in Bohol has recommended to Governor Edgar M. Chatto to push through the planned Cloud Seeding Operation (CSO) in the province of Bohol on May in time for the schedule of land preparation of the Boholano farmers for the coming wet cropping season in the service areas of the four major dams and rainfed areas in Bohol.
According to Leon Parac Jr., CSO focal person, the task force had conducted an urgent meeting last March 29, 2019 presided over by Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry M. Pamugas in his office at the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist aimed to provide updates on the effects of El Niño Phenomenon which the country and the province of Bohol have been experienced.
Parac said that one of the agenda was about the plan to conduct CSO in Bohol of which they agreed to formally ask the governor to push through the making of artificial rain using the already approved funds from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office in the tune of P2.3M.
The bidding of the P2.3M provincial budget was already conducted last December 19, 2018 and the winning bidder was the Pegasus Air Services based in Manila.
This amount intended for CSOs is in addition to the P2.5M budget from Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) which was already downloaded to Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office (DA-RFO7) and the bidding was already conducted last March 12, 2019 and the winning bidder was the Rhoyle Airways based in Negros Oriental.
He said the El Niño Task Force cited several reasons after the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical-Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) had reported the forecast models that indicated the weak or even moderate strength El Niño conditions for the March-May season, continuing into June-August and August-October seasons, weakening but not disappearing during October-December 2019 seasons.
Based on the PAG-ASA’s outlook for areas potential for dry condition, dry spell and drought the provinces of Bohol, Cebu, and Southern Leyte have expressed dry spell starting this month.
The PAG-ASA’s rainfall forecast for the whole country: April 2019-generally way below normal rainfall to below normal rainfall conditions in most parts of the country; May 2019 – generally below normal rainfall conditions of Southern Luzon and Visayas while near normal in most parts of Northern Luzon and Mindanao; June 2019-below normal rainfall conditions expected in most parts of Visayas and Mindanao are expected to have near normal rainfall conditions;
July 2019 – most parts of Luzon will likely receive near normal rainfall with some patches of above normal rainfall conditions; while near normal rainfall condition with patches of below normal in Visayas and Mindanao is expected; August 2019- generally below normal rainfall conditions in most parts of Luzon while near normal to above normal in most parts of Visayas and Mindanao are expected; and September 2018 – generally below normal rainfall conditions in most parts of Luzon while near normal to above normal in most parts of Visayas and Mindanao are expected.
The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) also reported that the water elevations of Malinao Dam in Pilar, Bayongan Dam in San Miguel, Capayas Dam in Ubay and Talibon Dam in Talibon are getting lower due to below normal rainfall conditions wherein the existing water are not enough for the coming wet cropping season on May-June 2019.
Evelina P. Putong, Principal Engineer C, NIA 7 reported that as of March 28, 2019 the water elevations of the four dams were as follows: Malinao Dam; actual – 44.88m, at full – 52.00m., critical – 41.00m; Capayas Dam: actual – 33.54m, at full – 36.50m, critical – 30.00m; Talibon Dam: actual – 25.87m, at full – 30.00m, critical -21.00m.
Engr. Putong said that NIA7 has been conducting the daily monitoring of irrigated areas and strict implementation of water delivery schedule.
To mitigate the impact of El Niño phenomenon, the NIA 7 requested for cloud seeding for the next cropping as an intervention of the government to the Boholano farmers. (Atoy Cosap)