"Actually, rice prefers sunny weather. Our yield is higher when it's sunny.”

This is what a key official of the National Irrigation Authority said when asked about the estimated volume of rice to be affected during the onset of the El Niño phenomenon, which is forecast to persist until the second quarter of 2024.

“President Marcos instructed us to give the high-yielding varieties to the NIA so that we can plant those that we can irrigate,” said NIA Administrator Engr. Eduardo Guillen in an interview on Wednesday.

“Because the inbred ones, if the yield is only four tons...times two, it's eight tons already. We estimate that 20 percent will be affected by El Niño, but if that 20 percent…and what you planted immediately increases its yield to 50 percent, our production will definitely not decrease,” Guillen continued, citing that last year, despite being troubled by simultaneous typhoons, the country recorded an increase in rice harvest due to cultivation of high-yielding varieties during the dry season.

“We prefer sunny weather so that our rice yield will be higher,” he further expressed.

Meanwhile, Guillen said that NIA is already implementing alternative wetting and drying technology to increase around 20 to 30 percent of their irrigation systems in Central Luzon, noting that those farmlands that aren't able to be reached by their tail-end services have already planted high-yielding varieties of rice.

“The Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Social Welfare and Development also aid us in helping our affected farmers. All our farmers receive assistance,” he said.