02/10/2026
WHY IRRIGATED FARMS ACTUALLY PERFORM BETTER DURING EL NIรO: NIA
SITREP/El Niรฑo: The National Irrigation Administration (NIA), the agency tasked with keeping Philippine farms watered through drought and deluge alike, is more worried about La Niรฑa than El Niรฑo.
NIA Administrator Eddie Guillen said it plainly in an interview on DZRH News program "The Situation Report" on Thursday, October 1: "Mas takot po ang NIA sa La Niรฑa kaysa po sa El Niรฑo."
The reason, he said, is not counterintuitive once you understand how irrigated farming works. The key is sunlight.
When the sun shines during dry season, plants photosynthesize more efficiently.
They convert more sunlight into food, which means more grain per hectare. The limiting factor in a wet season is not water but light.
Overcast skies and heavy rainfall limit the solar energy available to crops, suppressing yields even when the fields are well-watered.
In a dry season, with an irrigation system supplying the water that rain would otherwise provide, the sun does all the rest.
"Alam naman po natin, 'pagka maaraw at may El Niรฑo, pabor po rin sa amin 'yan, kung sa mga farmers, basta may tubig. Dahil 'pag maaraw, mas maganda ang photosynthesis. Mas makakagawa ng pagkain ang halaman, kaya mas mataas ang yield o produksyon natin," Guillen said.
The numbers are dramatic. Wet season rice yield in irrigated areas averages around four metric tons per hectare.
In dry season, the same land under the same irrigation produces eight, and hybrid varieties can reach ten to twelve.
"Talagang nadodoble po ang yield natin 'pagka dry season. 'Pagka wet, nasa 4 tons lamang kami, pero 'pagka dry season, 8 tons. May umaabot pa ho ng mahigit 10 tons, 12 tons. Ganun po kahalaga. Per hectare po ito nakaka-12 metric tons na tayo sa mga high-yielding po, itong mga hybrid," Guillen said.
This is why Guillen says NIA actually looks at El Niรฑo with cautious optimism for the irrigated sector.
"Actually po, kasi 'pagka El Niรฑo, mataas talaga 'yung production po ng pagkain natin doon sa mga part na kaya naming i-irrigate. So ang pagkain po ay nasi-secure natin 'yan. Kaya mataas po ang confidence namin na 'yung sa pagkain, mase-secure po natin," Guillen said.
La Niรฑa, by contrast, is a different story. Excessive rainfall floods standing crops, damages irrigation canals and pump stations, and creates waterlogged soil conditions where farming becomes impossible rather than merely difficult.
The infrastructure NIA has built, which include the canals, the pump stations, the solar irrigation systems, is far more vulnerable to floodwater than to drought.
The caveat, Guillen acknowledged, is the 40% of Philippine rice production that comes from non-irrigated farms.
These rainfed areas will feel El Niรฑo's impact directly, because they have no stored water to draw from when the rains stop. But even for those farmers, Guillen said, the situation is not hopeless.
"Hindi ho kasi ibig sabihin na kapag kulang na ho 'yung tubig ay hindi na makakapagtanim. Dahil meron naman po tayong pwedeng ipatanim sa kanila na mga high-value crops na nasa 2 months, pwede na ho silang mag-harvest," Guillen said.
NIA is also changing the cropping calendar itself: teaching farmers to plant during the sunniest months and harvest before the rains arrive, rather than timing crops around the wet season and leaving them exposed to typhoons at their most vulnerable stage.
"Binabago namin talaga 'yung cropping calendar natin. Nilalagay namin 'yung double dry cropping. Sinasabi namin na dapat magtanim tayo kung kailan tag-araw," Guillen said.
This shift, combined with full dams, expanding solar pump irrigation, and a growing fleet of heavy equipment, is why Guillen believes NIA can hold the line on food production through the El Niรฑo period.
The sun, he says, is not the enemy. It is the asset. The task is making sure there is enough water to let it work.
