Upland farmers welcome monsoon rains, says provincial agriculturist

By Lyndon Plantilla

Wednesday 8th of August 2012

CABANATUAN CITY, August 8 (PIA) -- While southwest monsoon rains may have brought destruction to other regions, the same rains are heaven’s gift to upland farmers, according to provincial agriculturist in Nueva Ecija.

Provincial Agriculturist Serafin Santos said these farmers work in areas dependent on rainwater for irrigation.

The monsoon rains yesterday, Santos said, have no destructive effect in most parts of the province. However, some 4,000 hectares in San Antonio, Zaragoza, Aliaga, Licab at Quezon are now inundated.

While the flowering stage of rice is the critical period of controlling rice pests and diseases, Santos said, fortunately most of the planted ricelands are either in vegetative or reproductive stages which may not be affected by flooding at all.

Should rice in 4,000 inundated lands be destroyed, Santos said, such losses will not greatly affect over-all production of Nueva Ecija.

But it’s too early to consider these flooded farmlands as losses at this point, he said. The total picture of damages, Santos said, will be seen when they completed their assessment this week.

Around 175,000 hectares have been planted with rice; the province aims to cover 200,000 hectares. (RmB/LP/PIA-3/NUEVA ECIJA)