Crop damage, losses due to El Nino soar to P5.05 billion

BAKED AND BARREN. All that toil came to naught for a farmer whose rice field in San Ildefonso, Bulacan province, has been reduced to a drought-scarred landscape. —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday reported that damage to rice and corn farms due to the El Niño phenomenon has reached P5.05 billion.

In its latest agricultural damage bulletin, DA’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DDRM) office said that the weather phenomenon has affected 164,672 farmers and 177,743 hectares of land.

DA added that damage to rice and corn crops have reached P2.69 billion and P2.36 billion, respectively.

A total of 108,845 rice farmers in 37 provinces and 55,827 corn farmers in 17 provinces were affected by the dry spell.

The affected regions include the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Bicol region, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, and BARMM.

The report also noted that a total of P95.875 million have been released from the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) to provide financial assistance to affected farmers.

An additional P18.3 million was also allotted for cloud seeding operations to be conducted by DA regional field offices and the Philippines Air Force.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) earlier predicted that El Niño will last until end of May or June. / gsg