An El Niño event currently being felt across the Philippines is expected to last until mid-2010, according to the country’s Department of Agriculture, and fruit growers have been told to prepare themselves to cope with the low rainfall.
Speaking at a media forum in Davao on Wednesday Larry Miculob, treasurer and board of trustees member of the Mindanao Fruit Council, told the region’s fruit growers they needed to embrace measures to mitigate the impact of the weather pattern, reported the Sun Star Davao.
“We told other farmers to prepare. They must rehabilitate their irrigation systems if they already have one, but if none, they should start putting up their irrigation system,” Mr Miculob said.
“We experience strong winds and we perceive a lower rainfall rate this year compared to last year.”
The Philippine’s Department of Agriculture (DA) has labelled the Davao area “moderately vulnerable” to the effects of El Niño, along with 23 other regions, and labelled a further 23 “highly vulnerable”.
In late December, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap created the El Niño Mitigation Programme, which will attempt to avert the worst affects of the weather pattern with 2bn pesos (US$43.7m) of funding, reported Bloomberg.
Officially referred to as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the periodic climate pattern is characterised by an unusual heating of sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, among other effects.
The pattern has a cycle of 4-12 years, with the cycle most commonly occurring every five years.
