Automated weather monitoring to boost agriculture in Dinagat Islands' town
By Renelle L. Escuadro
The Department of Agriculture (DA) Caraga, through the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiatives in Agriculture (AMIA), recently installed the automated weather station (AWS) at Sitio Bagong Silang, Brgy. Sta. Cruz in Tubajon, Province of Dinagat Islands.
This technology can greatly help farmers and other players in agriculture, as AWS can provide real-time, accurate, and site-specific data on weather conditions that are significant for crops and irrigation management.
Richard Tabudlong, DA-AMIA alternate project leader, encouraged the
farmers of the town to embrace and utilize the intervention in agriculture, as
this weather station will help them decide what and when to plant, irrigate,
and harvest their crops.
“The data gathered can help the farmers in their decision-making processes as it will provide a full range of advice regarding climate and its impact on crops, so that appropriate services and measures will be implemented to reduce and manage climate risks,” Tabudlong said.
Tubajon is a fifth class municipality in the province with nine barangays on coastal topography. With this, the town experiences unpredictable seasonal variation in monthly rainfall, which is handled manually and traditionally by the farmers. As a result, they become frustrated if typhoons hit the farmlands by surprise and destroy their crops, thus weakening the agriculture industry of the place.
With the new technology, farmers are motivated to rekindle the hard work in farming as they now have a better forecast of the weather and can establish timely mitigation measures on how to lessen risks and reduce agricultural losses, especially during extreme weather conditions.
On the other hand, municipal mayor Simplicia Pedrablanca expressed her gratitude to DA and she has high hopes for the town's boost of agricultural production.
"Currently, our agricultural produce could only feed 4,000 out of the 9,000 population of the town. But with this newly installed weather station, I believe, gradually, we will become a food self-sufficient municipality and help our farmer-families improve their livelihoods, contributing to reduction of poverty in the locality," the mayor said.
With the automated weather station, the locals of the place, who greatly rely on farming and fishing, considered this support of the government as a beacon of hope in agriculture, with long-term benefits for livelihood and poverty alleviation. (RLE/PIA-PDI)
