El Niño-hit farmers get free irrigation pumps

The government has given out P10.9 million worth of assistance and provided emergency employment to Northern Luzon farmers reeling from an El Niño-induced drought, the Agriculture department said on Thursday. The P10.9-million aid were in the form of allocation certificates for 426 irrigation pumps to be distributed to farmers in the El-Niño hit province of Cagayan, the agency said in a statement. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presented the certificates to Cagayan Gov. Alvaro Antonio and other municipal mayors of the province during a recent tour of the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle Super Region. Newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Bernardo G. Fondevilla said the 426 irrigation pumps are part of the 1,363 units worth P35.6 million being distributed by the department to affected farmers. He said the President had announced that farmers whose crops had been damaged by the dry spell would be employed to desilt rivers and repair irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads. Farmers will also be updated on the use of technology to support agribusiness and lessen the effects of abnormal weather conditions such as El Niño. The department also said the President had ordered the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to impose a moratorium on the payment by farmers of 150 kilos of palay per hectare as irrigation fees. The moratorium will last while the dry spell persists. The President has also ordered the restructuring of loans and interest payments incurred by El Niño-hit farmers, as well as a moratorium on penalties imposed by government financial institutions such as the Land Bank of the Philippines. Fondevilla on Wednesday said farm output might contract this quarter due to billions of pesos worth of crop damage from the drought brought by El Niño, an abnormal weather pattern caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean, which warms South America, brings torrential rains in North America and drought in Southeast Asia and Australia. — NPA, GMANews.TV