EDITORIAL —–FOR april 30, 2023
TEASER ON THE FRONT PAGE
This is a glimpse of this week’s Editorial entitled Bracing for the impact
of El Niño. “Despite the high probability of El Niño in the province,
Bohol has success stories that it can replicate provincewide to
cushion the harsh impact of the upcoming disaster. The ball is
now in the hands of the Provincial Government of Bohol and the
municipal governments to educate our farmers and provide the
necessary tools and resources to utilize these practicesfully in the
coming months.” For the full text of the editorial, please turn to page
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EDITORIAL
Bracing for the impact of El Niño
There is an 80-percent probability of El Niño in the coming months,
according to the country’s lead weather agency PAG-ASA. The NEDA
warns that the El Niño phenomenon, characterized by prolonged dry
weather, is expected to develop as early as May and will affect food
production, especially rice.
This extreme weather condition is a major blow to an industry
suffering from low yield and high production costs due to expensive farm
inputs. Many farmers in Bohol opted not to plant their rice fields because it
is nearly impossible to recoup the cost of production. Other farmers who
decided to plant for their family’s consumption got low harvests as they
could not afford to provide complete fertilizers and pesticides for their rice
lands.
According to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PHILRICE), 29%
of Bohol’s farmlands have controlled irrigation, while the rest depend on
rainfall to irrigate their farms.
As the country is preparing for the El Niño, the government admits
that its rice supply is “too low” and that there is a need to boost its buffer
stock through a combination of purchases from local producers and
imports.
Is the province of Bohol better prepared when the scorching heat of
the sun starts to wreak havoc on our food security?
A study by Peter B. Urich, Liza Quirog, and William Granert entitled El
Niño: an adaptive response to build social and ecological resilience
suggests that building resilience into both human and ecological systems is
an effective way to cope with environmental change and that it is beneficial
to heed warnings of potential harm and to intervene in society to foster
adaptations that might avert extreme negative ecological and social
impacts which can trigger socio-political stress and widespread human
suffering. The study cited Bohol’s experience during the El Niño of 2014 as
evidence of a successful intervention.
In an article entitled Surviving El Niño posted on the website
www.johnnovis.com, farmers who adopted climate-resilient farming
practices in Tubigon, Carmen, and Pilar, Bohol, are featured as success
stories on how their farms survived the extreme weather condition.
Despite the high probability of El Niño in the province, Bohol has
success stories that it can replicate provincewide to cushion the harsh
impact of the upcoming disaster. The ball is now in the hands of the
Provincial Government of Bohol and the municipal governments to educate
our farmers and provide the necessary tools and resources to utilize these
practicesfully in the coming months.