The Department of Agriculture (DA) said that it is now firming up support mechanisms that will help facilitate the shift in the rice-planting calendar to veer away from typhoon-prone months, and ensure rice self-sufficiency by the end of 2013.

Dante Delima, Agriculture assistant secretary and National Rice Program coordinator, noted that farmers, particularly those served by two major irrigation systems in Northern and Central Luzon, are ready to adjust their rice cropping schedules – which will eventually increase their yield.

“We will provide support systems using all available resources, manpower, researches and inputs to support the initiative to advance the rice planting calendar” said Delima.

The DA official added that possible interventions will include trainings for technology transfer, insurance coverage, post-harvest facilities, marketing support, and an incentive system involving irrigation service fees are being considered to support the early cropping shift.

Delima said that the National Rice Program is calling for a national consultation towards the end of this month to study the effects of the early cropping system in all national and communal systems and concerned sectors in so far as increasing rice yield and raising incomes for farmers are concerned.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala also encouraged farmers covered by national irrigation systems to plant rice early to avoid the typhoon-prone months of September and October, and minimize damage to farm output.

About 190,000 hectares of irrigated farms will be covered by the early planting scheme, of which 110,000 hectares are covered by the National Irrigation Administration’s Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-UPRIIS) in Pampanga, while the remaining 80,000 hectares are served by the Magat River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-MARIIS) in Cagayan Valley.

UPRIIS has a total of 386 irrigators associations (IAs) under its jurisdiction with some 82,000 farmer-members, while MARIIS has 363 IAs with some 65,000 farmer-members. When combined, rice production in Northern and Central Luzon accounts for almost 35 percent of the country’s total rice output in 2011, data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics show.

Delima has conducted consultation meetings with officials and IA members belonging to UPRIIS on January 9, and MARIIS on January 27.

During the meeting with leaders and IA members of UPRIIS under Acting Operations Manager Josephine Salazar, it was learned that the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Pampanga and Tarlac were willing to advance their rice cropping schedule by adopting an Early Wet Planting scheme.

Under the UPRIIS 2011-2012 cropping calendar, the regular dry season started in November 2011 up to May 2012, while the regular wet crop is scheduled in June to December 2012. The regular dry crop is expected to benefit 111,689 hectares, while the proposed early wet cropping, to begin in April, targets 106,591 hectares.

Meanwhile during a meeting with MARIIS officials and IA leaders of Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, and Quirino on January 27, Delima learned that farmers and IA members were supportive of a proposed cropping calendar shift presented by National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Region 2 Manager Vicente Galvez.

Called the “Five-in-Two” program, after five rice croppings in two years until 2013, the proposal forwarded by NIA-MARIIS was designed to insert another cropping to the traditional two rice croppings a year presently practiced in the Cagayan Valley region. In the past, rice farmers in the area start their first cropping in November, ending in April; and again beginning in June, and ending in November.

However, documents presented by Galvez showed that from 2007, the combined effects of typhoons on nationally irrigated rice farms in the region have been steadily increasing. During the five-year period, last year registered the worst damage at a total of 111,054 hectares.