NIA advises farmers how to deal with El Nino

By Mortz C.Ortigoza

URDANETA CITY- The regional office of the National Irrigation Administration here said the government agency had advised farmers in the four provinces Region 1 to cope with the threatening onslaught of the El Nino.

COLLECTION. National Irrigation Administration -llocos Region’s Regional 

Manager John Celeste leads regional staff on mapping out strategies
 to spike water supply financial collection from farmers in the four 
provinces Region 1. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA 

El Nino is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean with a global impact on weather patterns.

According to  Public Information Officer Oca Navata, the office’s immediate responses are implement water management by regulating dam water releases, adopting rotational water distribution, adjusting cropping calendar or pattern by moving cropping schedule by one to two weeks earlier , rationalizes program area where the area to be irrigated would be based on dependable water supply.

“The other immediate measure is adopt diversified cropping by planting non-rice crops n suitable land classes, the repair of irrigation canals by plugging holes, cracks and leaks in canal embankments, the installation water augmentation pumps by putting up water augmentation pumps where ground water exists, adopt short growing varieties by planting short growing 120 days rice varieties, mend paddy dikes by heightening, thicken and repair paddy to reduce leakage at the farm level, carrying out cloud seeding by commissioning cloud seeding operation,” Navata reads the brochures provided to him by Regional Manager John Celeste.

El Nino is the cycle that begins when warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean shifts eastward along the equator toward the coast of South America. Normally, this warm water pools near Indonesia and the Philippines. During an El Niño, the Pacific's warmest surface waters sit offshore of northwestern South America.

The other long term measures to mitigate the El Nino’s scourge, according to Navata, is the used of structures to collect drainage discharge, regulate water withdrawals, certain episode impact concrete line irrigation canals, and replant irrigation watersheds.