DA orders to fast track delivery of El Niño aid
Agriculture Acting Secretary and chair of task force on mitigation measures on El Nino Bernie Fondevilla ordered the fast tracking of the distribution and delivery of aid particularly palay and corn to farmers in Isabela, Cagayan and to other vulnerable provinces in the country.
The Regional Field Units of the DA are instructed to ensure that the aid packages which include seeds, open source pumps and fuel subsidies for water pumps, do reach the intended farmer-beneficiaries soon enough, and to step up their monitoring developments so the Department can get an accurate picture of the situation and carry out all needed intervention programs for the actual number of farmer-victims.
“Our RFUs have been directed to coordinate with LGU executives on the distribution of the government’s aid package to affected palay and corn farmers in the drought-stricken provinces and, more importantly, to ensure that such assistance do reach the intended beneficiaries as soon as possible,” Fondevilla said.
Negros Occidental Office of the Provincial Agriculturist disclosed that it is expecting a P1-million aid from the DA for its continuous cloud seeding operations.
OPA declared damaged to crops in the province to reach P9.1 million.
Fondevilla said that DA through the RFUs is also set to distribute 25,000 packets of assorted vegetable seeds to affected farmers and has already bidded out the contract for the supply of another P10 million-worth of assorted vegetable seeds for distribution to farmers with totally damaged crops.
Anticipating such farmers’ woes, Fondevilla earlier ordered a realignment of the DA national budget for this year to raise P1.71 billion for assorted intervention measures aimed at mitigating potential production losses of P8 billion to P20 billion in the agriculture sector arising from an El Niño attack. (PIA/EAD)
