How to Address the Drastic Effects of El Nino in the Philippines?

What is El Nino in the first place?
El Nino is a disturbance of the ocean atmosphere system in the Tropical Pacific having major
consequences for the weather and climate around the world. It happens every two
to seven years and normally lasts about eight to ten months. The longest El
Nino warming was about five years.

What causes El Nino?
Trade winds blow west towards the Pacific, normally and push warm surface water away from the coast of South America moving towards
Australia and The
Philippines. The water is cold and rich in nutrients. During El Nino trade
winds calm down in the central and west Pacific, which causes warm water to
gather in the surface. The number of nutrients caused by cold water decrease, which
ends up killing plankton and fish, seabirds then also die, from lack of food.
This causes major disorder of weather patterns worldwide.

The Current Situation of the Philippines because of El Nino:

The Philippines is currently experiencing El Nino. And many places in the
Philippines declared the state of calamity alarms so that each local
government could use their Calamity Fund.

According to this week’s report by the Agriculture department’s Central Action Center, crops planted in
10,533 hectares have zero chance of recovery while those planted in
another 147,633 can still survive the dry spell. That picture brings to
158,166 hectares the total area of farmlands affected by El Niño,
accounting for 201,237 MT of assorted crops valued at P2.84 billion.

The palay fields damaged by El Niño represented 3.39 % of the 1 million
hectares that are ready for harvest from January to March and 1.5 % of
the production forecast of 3.79 million MT for the quarter.


Please read the news from the United Nation:


Philippines: Food Security Warnings over El Nino

MANILA, 8 March 2010 (IRIN) - Warnings have been raised over food security in the Philippines as the El Niño phenomenon wreaks havoc
across vast agricultural areas, leaving staple crops such as rice dying
in parched earth, officials say.

The cost of crop damage has topped US$239 million since the phenomenon
started a heat wave across much of northern Luzon Island and parts of
the central Visayas region in late December, said the Department of
Agriculture in a recent report by its special task force on El Niño.

Some 14 provinces have been affected, with the brunt of the crisis
borne by the agricultural provinces of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya,
Cagayan and Isabela, where irrigation has dried up.

The El Niño drought is compounding problems for an already bleak
agricultural sector recovering from devastation wrought last year by
two powerful storms, Ketsana and Parma, that pummelled Luzon, officials
say.

To stave off a potential shortfall in rice supply, the agriculture
department has said it may import some three million metric tonnes of
rice this year.

Gary Olivar, spokesman for Philippines President Gloria Arroyo,
confirmed that the government had entered into import contracts for
rice as a "short-term alternative".

"There are no long-term food shortage effects from a short-term
phenomenon like El Niño, but we are preparing for its more frequent
recurrence due to global warming by expanding our water supply sources,
exploring dry weather cultivation methods, as well as similar other
policies," Olivar told IRIN.

Range of crops affected

Pig and poultry farmers are also alarmed at the impact on corn crops,
fearing skyrocketing prices of animal feeds, since corn is a major raw
material.

According to official statistics, 54 percent of the total 487,389ha
planted with rice, corn, tobacco and other high value commercial crops
have been affected in the northern region.

Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Cagayan provinces are officially under a
"state of calamity", so they can now tap extra government funding.

The government is also racing against time to save remaining crops by
bringing in additional irrigation pumps and seeding clouds in what has
so far been a failed bid to induce rain. Teams of experts are also
monitoring possible drought-triggered outbreaks of pests and diseases.
***

My Proposed Solutions:

1. The government should initiate in Making "underground farmlands"
2. The government should support the IRRI (Integrated Rice Research Institute) to to continue their study and breeding crops that can withstand drastic climate condition such El Nino and La Nina.
3. We, youth, should show examples to the younger ones not to waste food. This might be too simple but i believe that this will make a difference to mitigate the food shortage in the Philippines.
4. More Water irrigation for the Farmers!
5. We, youth, should take an initiative to ask support from Private Sectors!