Cotabato town loses P11.4M in crops to rats, bugs

KIDAPAWAN CITY—Rats and black bugs that ravaged rice farms in Kabacan town in North Cotabato province starting October have destroyed at least P11.4 million worth of crops, prompting the local government to put the town under a state of calamity, local officials said.

David Don Saure, chief of the Kabacan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC), said rice farms in at least seven of the town’s 24 villages had been hit by the twin infestations.

Kabacan is one of North Cotabato’s rice granaries. In 2009, the town’s farmers produced 41,926 metric tons of rice from 9,739 hectares of rice farms, which made Kabacan the third biggest rice producer in the province after Midsayap and Tulunan towns.

Saure said the municipal agriculture office, in its assessment, reported that the infestations had so far affected more than 500 ha tilled by 491 farming families.

Mayor Herlo Guzman Jr. on Friday said the Sangguniang Bayan approved a resolution declaring the town under a state of calamity. The declaration was recommended by the MDRRMC to hasten the delivery of assistance to affected communities.

Saure said Guzman had ordered the distribution of food packs to farmers before the council took up the calamity declaration.

Last year, Kabacan also experienced a massive rat infestation that destroyed more than P24-million worth of crops.  —WILLIAMOR MAGBANUA AND EDWIN FERNANDEZ