P590M crops in Cotabato damaged by drought

COTABATO CITY—Some P590 million worth of crops had been damaged by the drought in North Cotabato as the province had not experienced heavy downpour since January, said Eliseo Mangliwan, North Cotabato provincial agriculture officer.

As of Friday, the cost of damage to high-value crops, including rice and corn, had reached more than half a billion pesos, he said.

North Cotabato provincial board member Loreto Cabaya, chair of city council committee on agriculture, said most of the damaged crops were beyond recovery.

He said crops that had the chance of recovering from the dry spell were also threatened by grass fire.

“Even banana and rubber plantations, which are supposed to be heat-resistant, have been affected,” Cabaya said.

Mangliwan said more than 2,400 hectares of rice and 22,000 hectares of corn have been destroyed by the absence of rain.

The water supply in various irrigation systems have also dwindled, some even dried up.

More than 7,000 farmers in North Cotabato’s 17 towns and a city have been affected.

The drought also resulted in the death of a dozen hogs due to heat stroke in Kidapawan City, the city veterinary office reported.

The local governments of Mlang and Kabacan, have also placed the towns under a state of calamity due to the drought. Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao