CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Department of Agri-culture is expanding starting May the cultivation of flood-resistant rice varieties on an P8-million fund for 5,000 farmers in Central Luzon to help them cope with increasingly heavy rainfall and the resulting floods amid climate change.
The amount will cover the costs of training, seeds and continuing research, according to Engr. Eduardo Gonzales, DA regional technical director for administration, research and finance.
The agency is expanding the project after the research division completed in January the tests done on at least 16 local and Asian varieties, he said.
For the research that covered Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales, nine “mother trials” were done on 1,000 square meter plots, five “baby trials” on half-hectare lands and commercial growing on 120.30 hectares in last year’s wet season.
In a report, senior agriculturist Vivencio Tabulina said the crops at vegetative stage survived the floods in July and August.
“However, Ondoy and Pepeng that hit Central Luzon in the month of September and October, coupled with relatively huge volume of water released by the different dams caused flooding in Central Luzon for more than one week thus totally damaging standing rice crop considering that most were on the flowering stage,” Tabulina reported.
The average harvest in the 38.6 hectares used for the commercial growing of PSB RC68 and IR64 Sub 1 reached only 37.78 cavans.
Most of the yields in areas for mother and baby trials were at normal levels.
The trial in Anyatam, San Ildefonso, Bulacan was stopped when floods hit the area for the third time.
“Most of the varieties appeared to have tolerated floodwaters for a week during the first flooding event,” Gonzales said.
Survival rates during the second flooding varied though.
The IR64-Sub 1/IR07F102 planted in Cabiao and Aliaga towns in Nueva Ecija, Baliwag in Bulacan, Iba in Zambales and Candaba in Pampanga were affected with bacterial leaf blight.
Gonzales said the DA wants farmers in Central Luzon to have more coping mechanism schemes because floods in recent years damaged on an annual average around 200,000 hectares of rice lands.
The region is prone to serious floods because it is basin-shaped and its waterways have been silted by the sand that Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions spewed or are blocked by fishponds. The sinking of lands at the mouth of the Pampanga Bay in coastal Bulacan and Pampanga is said to worsen the floodings.
The amount will cover the costs of training, seeds and continuing research, according to Engr. Eduardo Gonzales, DA regional technical director for administration, research and finance.
The agency is expanding the project after the research division completed in January the tests done on at least 16 local and Asian varieties, he said.
For the research that covered Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales, nine “mother trials” were done on 1,000 square meter plots, five “baby trials” on half-hectare lands and commercial growing on 120.30 hectares in last year’s wet season.
In a report, senior agriculturist Vivencio Tabulina said the crops at vegetative stage survived the floods in July and August.
“However, Ondoy and Pepeng that hit Central Luzon in the month of September and October, coupled with relatively huge volume of water released by the different dams caused flooding in Central Luzon for more than one week thus totally damaging standing rice crop considering that most were on the flowering stage,” Tabulina reported.
The average harvest in the 38.6 hectares used for the commercial growing of PSB RC68 and IR64 Sub 1 reached only 37.78 cavans.
Most of the yields in areas for mother and baby trials were at normal levels.
The trial in Anyatam, San Ildefonso, Bulacan was stopped when floods hit the area for the third time.
“Most of the varieties appeared to have tolerated floodwaters for a week during the first flooding event,” Gonzales said.
Survival rates during the second flooding varied though.
The IR64-Sub 1/IR07F102 planted in Cabiao and Aliaga towns in Nueva Ecija, Baliwag in Bulacan, Iba in Zambales and Candaba in Pampanga were affected with bacterial leaf blight.
Gonzales said the DA wants farmers in Central Luzon to have more coping mechanism schemes because floods in recent years damaged on an annual average around 200,000 hectares of rice lands.
The region is prone to serious floods because it is basin-shaped and its waterways have been silted by the sand that Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions spewed or are blocked by fishponds. The sinking of lands at the mouth of the Pampanga Bay in coastal Bulacan and Pampanga is said to worsen the floodings.
