There is a sufficient supply of food, particularly rice despite the impacts of El Niño in the country, President Marcos said.
“Well, kung ang pag-uusapan natin ay bigas, sapat naman ang ating supply. Hindi kailangang mag-alala ang tao. Sa katotohanan, yung mga area na may patubig, tumaas pa ‘yung ating naging ani, yung tons per hectare natin (if we talk about rice, we have enough supply. The public does not need to worry. In fact, the areas that have irrigations have higher harvest in terms of tons per hectare),” Marcos said in an interview in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro on Tuesday, April 23.
However, the President said that there are still many areas that need better irrigation system coverage, citing that in Occidental Mindoro, there are still 50 percent of El Niño-affected lands that must be irrigated.
As a remedy, he said the government is fast tracking the installation of solar pumps in upland non-irrigated areas to boost production, adding that the government is also building dams and impounding ponds.
The National Irrigation Administration’s (NIA) goal, he said, is to widen irrigation coverage to enable farmers to plant crops, particularly palay, even during drought season.
“Marami tayong binigay, dinadala na post-harvest facilities para imbes na ginigiling pa yung palay -- malayo pa ang dinadalhan, kung saan-saan pa dinadala -- dito na gagawin para malaki ang kikitain ng farmer (We are giving, bringing many post-harvest facilities so that farmers won't need to bring their palay to other places for milling, they can just do here to boost their earning)," he said.
Among the assistance given to El Niño-affected areas in the province are the deployment of three new long-arm backhoes and one wheel-type backhoe to all affected areas needing immediate canal clearing and desilting works.
Some 1,200 liters of diesel fuel were also distributed to farmers affected by the drought to subsidize the fuel requirement for diesel-powered water pumps in addition to 68 solar, diesel and water-powered pumps installed to irrigate 274 hectares of farmlands.
The agency also cited the construction of 18.06 kilometers of concrete irrigation canal along with 64 units of canal structures improving the delivery of irrigation water.
Some 7.6 kilometers of canal was also desilted by the agency to ensure unhampered water delivery and high efficiency of irrigation services to local farmers.