Agri Dept Prioritizes Farmers, Production Shift Amid El Niño Threat

AGRICULTURE SECRETARY Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said he ordered revisions to his agencies’ El Niño response plans to emphasize front-loading aid to farmers and shifting production to less-affected areas. The Department of Agriculture (DA) is working on providing immediate assistance to producers and implementing preemptive measures to bring in as much of the harvest as possible before weather disruptions cause food shortages, he said. “The lessons we learned from the powerful El Niño episode that ended in mid-2024 should help us respond better to the climate challenge we now face,” Mr. Laurel said in a statement. Mr. Laurel said that the DA’s El Niño strategy also involves shifting production to less-affected areas, expanding cloud seeding and solar-powered irrigation, maximizing water efficiency, distributing drought-tolerant seed varieties, releasing crop insurance proceeds promptly, and extending emergency financial support towards vulnerable farmers. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has warned that El Niño may send inflation higher in raising its key interest rate by 25 basis points, citing the need to take preemptive action. The BSP also did not rule out further monetary action if price pressures persist. “We have to produce more where the impact of El Niño will be less severe, increase the water available to farmers, and use every drop wisely through practices such as alternate wetting and drying and planting crops that require less water,” Mr. Laurel said. The DA noted that adverse weather conditions caused agricultural production to decrease 4.9% year on year in 2024. The DA also cited the Food and Agriculture Organization’s All Rice Price Index, which rose 21% in 2023 due to concerns over the impact of El Niño on agricultural production, as well as India’s imposition of restrictions on the export of non-basmati white rice. — Marron Joshua F. Mendoza