Piñol prepares plans to address La Niña's effects on agriculture

Incoming Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol is planning measures to address the effects of the coming La Niña phenomenon across the country.

Piñol said Thursday the incoming Duterte administration does not want to be caught flatfooted like the Aquino administration did with the dry spell brought by the El Niño weather phenomenon in recent months. He claimed that the Aquino administration failed to plan for the dry spell despite early warnings from PAGASA.  “Kaya nagutom ‘yong mga tao natin,” he said. Government officials on both the national and local levels have said in past media statements that efforts to address the dry spell like cloud seeding had been conducted. 

Piñol said state weather bureau PAGASA has already briefed him about its assessment on La Niña, which is expected to to affect the eastern seaboard. He said he is already drafting plans to focus food production along the western seaboard to mitigate the risk posed by flooding and storms. “That’s how planning should be,” he said. Piñol said that the Agriculture department will be in close coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development to provide food and cash assistance to affected farmers. Meanwhile, the incoming chief said that part of his visit here is to look at interventions for fishing communities, which are also considered among the poorest in the country. He said he has drafted a program to initially provide food assistance to fisherfolk based on data gathered by the DSWD. He said they will also implement cash assistance schemes launching the ‘Malinis at Masaganang Karagatan’ campaign. “Para kumita kaagad ang fisherfolks we are planning to involve them in the cleaning of the coastal areas fronting their communities and we will come up with a way of compensating them,” Piñol said.

Source: Philstar Global

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