By Francis Allan L. Angelo, Correspondent
http://www.bworld.com.ph/main/content.php?id=4498
ILOILO CITY — A pioneering climate school for farmers has helped make the town of Dumangas the top rice producing municipality in Iloilo province.
The Iloilo Provincial Agriculture Office (IPAO) credits the Climate Field School (CFS) in Dumangas for helping farmers keep tabs of changing weather and climate patterns, and adjust their farming practices.
Data from the IPAO show that Dumangas produced 43,496 metric tons (MT) of palay in 2008, dislodging the town of Pototan (43,287 MT) as the rice granary of Iloilo province.
Provincial Agriculturist Ildefonso T. Toledo said Dumangas will continue to dominate rice production in 2009 even as they gather the latest data from municipalities.
The CFS is a flagship activity under Climate Forecast Applications (CFA) piloted in Dumangas from July to September 2007.
The program was jointly implemented by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, weather bureau PAGASA, Iloilo provincial government and Dumangas municipal government.
The US Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) extended support to the program dubbed Climate Forecast Applications for Disaster Mitigation.
The CFS is equipped with modern weather forecasting instruments such as early warning devices and rain gauges installed within the Jalaur River basin.
The Jalaur River is the main source of irrigation for 15,519 hectares of riceland in eight towns and the component city of Passi.
Mr. Toledo said the program’s main aim is to strengthen the country’s capacity to manage impacts of climate variability on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture.
“Specifically, it hopes to enhance the capacity of agriculture extension workers and farmers to understand and apply climate information in order to reduce flood and drought risks in agriculture,” he added.
Mr. Toledo said Dumangas earned the CFS grant after hosting the first agrometeorology school in Western Visayas. Agrometeorology is the study of the effects of changing climate and weather patterns on agriculture.
“The CFS will also be implemented in other municipalities, especially in rice-producing towns, to generate and apply locally tailored climate information tools. These tools can help build the capacity of rice-producing towns,” Mr. Toledo said.
He said he was hoping that they can acquire more weather instruments through grants from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The instruments could help guide Iloilo farmers on their cropping pattern and crop production. He also encouraged other local government units to put up their own rain gauges to help farmers become aware of their cropping pattern.
Initial reports from the IPAO show that Iloilo’s rice production has reached 800,000 metric tons so far. Mr. Toledo said they are optimistic of reaching the one-million-MT mark as they continue to gather more reports from the municipal agriculture offices.
“Our rice production has been very good since June 2009, surpassing our yield during the June-December 2008 period. The production reports for December 2009, which is part of the second cropping cycle, will complete our data.
Producing an average of 3.5 metric tons per hectare, the province of Iloilo is currently the third top rice-producing province of the country after Nueva Ecija and Isabela in the north.
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