The Cordillera Regional Inter Agency Task Group (RIATG) on El Nino in its first meeting has decided to create five task units among the task group members to consolidate their efforts in addressing the possible effects of the El Nino in the Cordillera which is expected to affect the region in October this year.
Department of Agriculture Cordillera (DA-CAR) Regional Executive Director and RIATG El Nino Chairperson Cameron Odsey reiterated the need to compose the members of five task units identified by the National Inter Agency Task Force (NIATF) El Nino with the objective of creating a comprehensive action plan to combat the prolonged drought.
“Although we are in the preparatory stage of meeting each other, but maybe there could be some action at the committee or task unit level which is under that regional task group so that consolidation and coordination efforts can be done at the committee level,“ Odsey said.
The NIATF identified the five committees to be on food security, water security, energy, health, and public safety with other agencies being members of the various committees depending on their agency mandate, with the objective of a compressing activities of agencies towards one direction.
Prior to the first Regional Inter Agency Task Group conference, DA-CAR Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) officer Lito Mocati explained the convening of the regional El Nino Task Group composed of 28 member agencies is a coordination meeting to strengthen the role of each member agency, aside from looking for ways how to address the prolonged drought by considering the use of water-related infrastructures, and various advocacies on how to manage and conserve water.
The Regional Agriculture Department earlier met with representatives of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to converge both agencies efforts in addressing the effects of El Nino through the consolidation and clustering of Farmer’s Cooperative Association (FCA) and Irrigators Association (IA) data, particularly in the rice and corn plantation areas in CAR.
The DA-CAR data to be forwarded to the NIA for consolidation will serve as a system in the provision of interventions to identified FCA/IA members.
Among the intervention measures considered by DA-CAR is the Information-Education Campaign (IEC) on climate change and El Nino, adaption of climate resilient agriculture practices such as the adjustment of the planting schedules, use of drought-tolerant seed varieties suitable in the vulnerable production areas, planting consideration for other crops which have minimal use of water, use of mulching, desilting, and repair and restoration of irrigation systems particularly those in the tail end of the system that might not be reached by the supply of water, and cloud seeding when necessary.
This is aside from the provision of water pump engines, the search for other alternative sources of water like aquifers and deep wells, continuous advocacy on proper water management for irrigation purposes, and the procurement of water HDPE Plastic sheets to be used as temporary storage for rainwater during the rainy season to be used for non-irrigated areas.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between all of the members of the RIATG will be formed to serve as the basis for implementing measures on El Nino. **JTLlanes
