PHL farms no match against El Niño — report

Philippine farms failed to offset the losses inflicted by the El Niño phenomenon even after the prolonged drought left the country during the last quarter of 2010, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics said Thursday. Farm production in general went down by 0.12 percent in 2010, as opposed to its growth of 0.29 percent in 2009. Crop producers turned out to be the biggest losers with their output down by 2.77 percent. Poultry farmers performed better with a growth of 3.72 percent. The fisheries sector trailed with 1.72 percent, followed by livestock producers with 1.48 percent. The bureau reported that though the agriculture sector bounced back after the drought, “the gains recorded in the fourth quarter were not enough to cushion the impact El Niño during the first nine months of the year." Rice production, with the grain the staple food of Filipinos, suffered a setback of 3.04 percent to 15.77 million metric tons (MT) from 16.26 million MT in 2009. An official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has proposed changes in the practice of growing rice in countries like the Philippines that often bear the brunt of El Niño. Van Nguu Nguyen, executive secretary of the FAO International Rice Commission, has suggested in a paper that rice producers move the planting period to seasons of lower temperature. He added it will help to develop and select rice varieties that can stand high temperatures, salinity, droughts, and floods — the effects of global warming. “This would minimize the negative effect of temperature increase on rice yield," Nguyen said. — With Paterno Esmaquel II/VS, GMANews.TV