Crop damage seen to double during La Niña

CEBU, Philippines - The city agriculture office sees the damage in crops and properties caused by El Niño to double or even triple when La Niña comes in October this year.

City agriculturist Joelito Baclayon said that the total incurred damage of the city since the onslaught of El Niño last year reached P73.1 million, fortunately lesser than their earlier estimated damage of P75 million.

The affected commodities are crops including mango, banana, cucumber, rice, high-value vegetables, cutflowers and livestock from poultry products to goats and hogs.

In vegetables alone, the damage is pegged at P21 million. The least affected is the livestock industry at only P25,000.

Baclayon said that this is less compared to four years ago during the last El Niño attack but as far as the whole Central Visayas is concerned, Cebu City has the most damage incurred in this year’s El Niño. The Department of Agriculture-7, Baclayon said, only declared P150 million in damage for the whole region.

This, he said, could double when La Niña starts because not only will the mountain barangays be affected but also the lowlands.

“Kay ang El Niño, more on sa bukid ang impact, more on crops, because in the absence of water, you cannot plant diba? But sa La Niña, you cannot even plant, there’s a runoff, there’s landslide, there’s flooding so dako g’yud ang damage,” Baclayon said.

In preparation for the rainy season and possible La Niña, Mayor-elect Michael Rama met with the concerned agencies and departments in the city yesterday to discuss the city’s plan on how to mitigate these phenomena.

“Right now we are expecting nga daghan kaayong ulan that’s why we had a meeting with vice mayor. Gi-meet mi niya to formulate measures, plans and projects para lang gyud to mitigate ba, if not control,” Baclayon said.

During the meeting, the Metropolitan Cebu Water District was tasked to assess the present water situation in the city and how it will be when the rainy season comes.

“On my part, gipabuhat sad ko og assessment kung unsa ang plan for La Niña. Sa opisina nako, one is encouraging the barangay, katong mga prone sa flooding, gi-encourage ang farmers to clean their farm canals or drainage. Second is to establish the small farm reservoirs. These farm reservoirs will not only serve as storage for water but if dili nila magamit, they can raise freshwater fish like Tilapia,” Baclayon said.

He said that he is also meeting with the University of San Carlos Water Resource Center to possibly adopt its proposed technology wherein water can be stored without easily evaporating.

Baclayon said the technology can be used in any season especially during El Niño or summer where the city usually runs out of water.

“Diba naa naman resolution requiring every household to install cisterns to catch rainwater, in mountain barangays mao sad na among gibuhat, through small farm reservoirs with this special type of technology,” he said.

He assured that the technology will not be costly. It will also be installed in 28 mountain barangays of the city.

Baclayon said that they have already determine possible areas where these reservoirs will be installed but it will be validated by the USC-WRC to check if the areas initially eyed are appropriate for the type of technology the city wants to adopt.   (FREEMAN NEWS)