El Niño damage on WV agri sector reaches P688M
The damaged to crops brought about by the long dry spell in Western Visayas reached to P688 million. Iloilo is the hardest hit among the provinces in the region.
Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Executive Director Larry Nacionales said there are 14,000 hectares of rice land and 400 hectares of corn land are damaged by the onslaught of El Niño.
In Iloilo, the hardest hit is Passi City. The towns of Cabatuan and Dumangas also posted considerable damage which placed them in the priority list of assistance from the agriculture department.
The dry spell also caused damage to corn plantation in the towns of Cuartero and Maayon in the province of Capiz. These are validated and realistic data, said Nacionales.
The estimated damaged was based on the latest evaluation of the Task Force El Niño. It is much lower when compared to the figures earlier released by the Iloilo provincial government, said Nacionales.
The provincial government reported some P1 billion damage and Gov. Niel Tupas Sr. wants the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to declare the province under the state of calamity.
Nacionales added there are 309,402 hectares planted with different crops in the third planting season. In which only 50,000 hectares have the source of water. Most of the farmers who ventured for a third cropping are those in rain feed areas. They can harvest their crops on April.
Nacionales described the farmers who relied on rain water yet continued to plant for the third cropping as “gamblers.” They were already informed of the dry spell. It is part of the farming system here, said Nacionales.
Though, there are already damages on the crops, Nacionales is confident that the dry spell will not cause heavy damage on the agricultural sector. Farmers were able to harvest their crops in the second cropping last January.
Nacionales is hoping to recover the losses in the agriculture sector during the wet season. The agriculture department is formulating a plan to for the wet season which starts on June.
The agriculture sector is the most vulnerable sector. There are reported damage on livestock and poultry in the province of Negros Occidental but it needs to be validated. There is also no reported damage on the fishery sector, said Nacionales.
The task force will continue to collect the data on the ground as basis for their El Niño mitigating measures which include the distribution of vegetable seeds to affected farmer-families, he said.
The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) have “mobile pumps” to provide water to farmers to address the water needs of rice which are in the reproductive stage, said Nacionales.
