Creation of drainage systems urged to ensure food security for the Philippines

Manila Bulletin (Philippines): The country needs to prioritize the creation of national and local drainage systems that will efficiently manage excess water supply to ensure food security amid the creeping threats of climate change in the Philippines, a government official said on Friday.

Romeo Recide, director of the Department of Agriculture (DA)'s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), noted that there is an insufficient number of drainage systems in farm fields in Northern and Central Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. “While we think of irrigation, we do not think of drainage. Our irrigation systems have canals but they are not designed to drain out waters when there is too much,” Recide said.

The official issued the statement in a forum organized by the Philippine Science Journalistic Association, Inc. (PSciJourn) held at the Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center inside SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City Friday morning.

Recide explained that the economy – 20 percent of which is dependent on the annual production of agricultural products, fisheries, and livestock – loses billions of pesos to damages brought by the visit of 20 to 24 tropical cyclones in the country annually.

Citing DA records, Recide said the country annually losses a total of 1,600,000 metric tons of rice production, 68 percent of which is due to too much ground water brought by typhoons on the average….

A mining camp in Luzon, around 1899