Cold spell destroys Nueva Vizcaya crops

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – A shortage in the supply of vegetables and other produce in the region is feared as farmers saw a significant drop in their production due to the prolonged cold spell.

Aside from this, the chilly weather also prevented fishermen in the northern coast of Cagayan from going out to sea, resulting in reduced catch available for the region’s various market outlets.

Cagayan Valley is one of the country’s major sources of agricultural produce, with Isabela the topmost rice and corn-producing province in the country and this province as the region’s vegetable bowl.

Bulk of the region’s vegetable, rice, corn and marine production supplies the consumption needs of the metropolis and other parts of the country.

Vegetable farmers in the province, whose upland areas are major producers of temperate vegetables, reported a drop by half in their production because of the cold, which reached 10 degrees Celsius over the week, an all time low for this landlocked province.

“The cold has prevented our vegetables from bearing fruit. As a result, from around 200 kg per week, I have only been able to harvest less than 100 kg of vegetables,” said Mang Adriano, an eggplant and ampalaya grower in Barangay Bonfal East here.

His neighbor, Mang David, has reported an even worse reduction of from around 300 kg per week to only 100 kg per week.

The same situation has also been experienced in the indigenous peoples-dominated mountain towns of Kayapa, Ambaguio, Dupax Del Sur, Dupax Del Norte, Kasibu, Diadi and Santa Fe where almost 80 percent of the province’s total vegetable production come from.

Many local farmers were forced to try to save their vegetable plants, which are now in their vegetative stage, by using fruit setters to prolong the pollination process. But experts say not all crops can be saved from the cold since they could also be attacked by fungus as a result of the constant rain.

The cold has also caused the flowers and leaves of rice and corn plants to wilt, and their grains to bear empty heads.

No data as to the cost of damage from the cold is yet available from the Agriculture department but by farmers’ accounts, it has already reached millions of pesos in terms of inputs wasted and crops destroyed.

Moreover, the lack of fish supply was also felt in this landlocked province as mobile fish vendors could only present a limited selection of fish from which their customers could choose from.

Fishermen from the region’s northernmost coast were unable to go to sea due to the extreme cold weather, which also led to most usual marine catch to go to the deeper parts of the sea.