​Are we doing enough to prepare for El Niño?

AN alarming warning was issued by the Department of Agriculture (DA) this week, which said the country’s rice production could drop by 700,000 metric tons, about 3.5 percent of normal output, due to the anticipated strong El Niño event later this year. In response, the DA has reconvened its El Niño task force and planned a number of mitigating measures, including cloud seeding to boost rainfall, the installation of solar-powered irrigation systems, changes in the planting sch