PH Farms Suffering Billions From El Niño Because "We Never Learn" – William Dar

At the Inquirer, Karl R Ocampo says, "Dry Spell Brings Farm Losses To P2.8 Billion," Inquirer.Net, m.inquirer.net, where the above image comes from). This story is in fact the banner headline of the print edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a copy of which on impulse I bought this morning. In the print edition, the subhead says, "Rice and corn farmers have borne the brunt of El Niño, which started more than a month ago and is expected to intensify in April. Among the hardest hit regions are Bicol and Soccsksargen, officials say."

And what does my favorite columnist say?
"We never learn!" (interjection from me)

Talk about timing! In his Manila Times column of today, "Achieving Water Security, Part 2" (28 March 2019, Manila Times, manilatimes.net), William Dar says (my emphasis):

All the while we all knew that an El Niño episode was coming this year and what did we do in advance?

Almost nothing. Or absolutely nothing.

What could we have done? Mr Dar points to the intelligent example of Vietnam, as early as August of 2018, whose agriculture ministry preemptively directed farmers in the Mekong River Delta to adjust their planting calendar, "enabling them to avoid the adverse effects of the dry spell, including seawater intrusion."

In contrast, in the Philippines? Mr Dar says:

Indeed, we never learn.¶ In 2015-2016, the country experienced one of the worst El Niño episodes that affected our agriculture sector severely. And we chose to wallow in amnesia.

Mr Dar is not saying it, but I am:

From the Secretary of Agriculture down to the technician in the field, there has been failure by government agents to serve the best interests of the Filipino farmers in so far as water security is concerned.

Warns Mr Dar – who is a BS Agriculture graduate (Benguet State University) and has a PhD in Horticulture  (UP Los Baños), as well as a 15-year experience as Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, based in India:

Rice imports are set to arrive into the country as the Rice Tariffication Law has already been signed... (Note that) rice farming has the highest water requirement among crops. So, this is actually the worst time for (Filipino) smallholder rice farmers to be hit by El Niño, as they will be facing competition from imports from Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam.

So? So, Mr Dar says, "Eventually, we pay the price." Actually, it's more like this:

We neglect our farmers and theypay the price!

Mr Dar says, no, cloud seeding will not help. Where do the farms store the rainwater? The rains will easily wash away those dried-up top soil (look at the above image again). I organic matter advocate say, that is because those bare soils have no organic matter component to hold not only the plant nutrients but also the water from the rains. If the topsoil is rich in organic matter, it will not be washed away even if rain water flows off.

We never learn!517

Summertime & Lack Of Water As The Burning Issue Of The Day

Philippines "lack of water"

Today, Thursday, 21 March 2019, in Manila I type the above line as my search words, including the double quotes, and Google gives me 9,800,000 results! Millions of webpages – that means that in the Philippines, lack of water is pervasive in the City, as well as in the Countryside. What do they have in common as the cause of water scarcity? I say I see:

Lack of consciousness in conserving water when there is plenty of it. The public complaining are the ones to blame for their water scarcity.

Look at my photograph above of a ricefield – the farmer has burned half of his field because the rice stubble interferes with his puddling of the soil for planting his rice. If the farmer only knew – if the Agricultural Training Institute, ATI, only taught him to convert the rice stubble into organic matter that will conserve the water in his field – I am assuming of course that the ATI knows!

Here we go again, William Dar seems to be saying in his new opinion piece in today's issue of the Manila Times (21 March 2019, "Achieving Water Security, Part 1" (21 March 2019, manilatimes.net):

News that water lack is hitting some areas in the country, including those that host farming, deeply bothers me. I mean, here we are again in a situation where we are "reactive," taking action only when a crisis manifests itself. What should have been done was anticipate the coming dry spell and make preparations, especially when water supply was still adequate or in abundance.

We do not conserve when we have plenty of water; we complain only when we run out of it.

Mr Dar says today, Thursday, the National Water Resources Board, will be holding the National Water Summit to discuss how the country can enjoy "water security." He says, "To date, agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of freshwater usage in the Philippines and approximately 70 percent worldwide." That tells me that where there is lack of water in the Countryside, you can blame the farmers 80% of the time!

I agree when Mr Dar says:

And here is the crux of the matter – unless we take steps to rejuvenate, preserve and improve the country's rivers, lakes, wetlands and watersheds from this year until 2025, the country would face a possible water crisis.

Yes, but I am not going to exonerate the farmer from the sin of commission of burning up his ricefield when he should be converting his rice stubble into organic matter to retain water on his field – which will also store the rainwater during the rainy days, as well as prevent soil erosion even during pouring rains. This is not to mention his wasteful use of water during land preparation and even long after.

And so I go back to my photograph of the farmer burning his ricefield, which he does not realize is reducing his soil's ability to store water enough for his crops. The farmer is burning his own Water Bearer!517