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At least 50 hectares of riceland in Pangasinan were considered as heavily damaged and 3,800 hectares partially damaged as a result of drought, according to the Department of Agriculture.

DA Regional Director Cipriano Santiago expects the area affected by drought as a result of El Niño phenomenon to increase some more as no rain is forthcoming in March.

He said as an ultimate remedy, they will rush shallow tube wells to the partially affected areas in the hope of preventing the farms from totally drying up, so that farmers can still harvest their crops.

However, Santiago admitted that this is dependent on the availability of groundwater at this time in those partially affected areas.

He estimated the whole province of Pangasinan to lose 250,000 metric tons of rice as a result of the long dry spell if there is no rain coming from now till the month of March.

Santiago advised farmers whose farms are now drying up to use shallow tube wells if they can source out water from anywhere that is available.

He said that Task Force El Niño has received reports that some towns of Pangasinan have declared a state of calamity as a result of their drying up farms but these are still subject to validation.

“Our field men will go to the municipalities that declared state of calamity to know the kind of assistance that will be extended by our office to the affected farmers,” Santiago said.

At the same time, an official of the Abono partylist reported that farms are now drying up in south central Pangasinan, affecting the towns of Sto. Tomas, Alcala, Bautista and Bayambang, all along the Agno River.

Also affected, said Rosendo So, founder of the Pangasinan-based Abono partylist, are the farmlands in Pozorrubio and Sison, which are not irrigated.

But he said farmers from Urdaneta City to San Fabian are still lucky as water in their farms is still plentiful.-PNA

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