El Niño damage reaches P4 billion in Isabela

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines  – The dry spell continued to wreak havoc in this agricultural region with Isabela, the country’s leading corn and rice producer, now losing some P4 billion in crop damage. 

According to reports, Isabela’s corn crops, which account for nearly 20 percent of the country’s total corn output per cropping season, suffered the bulk of damage of at least P2 billion or equivalent to some 70 percent of its expected corn yield this coming harvest.

Likewise, damage to palay already reached more than P1.4 billion or equivalent to 104 metric tons. The rest of crop damages have been accounted from fishery, livestock and other high-value crops. 

Dr. Danilo Tumamao, Isabela agriculture officer, said that the damaged palay represents more than 20.39 percent of the province’s anticipated palay output for the first semester of the year.

Isabela, along with Cagayan Valley’s other mainland provinces – Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino – produces at least 25 percent of the country’s total rice and corn production per year. 

These provinces have already been placed under calamity state, practically putting the entire Cagayan Valley, so far the only region in the country under such dire state as a result of the prolonged El Niño weather phenomenon.

The El Niño damages reported in Cagayan Valley account for some 50 percent of the more than P8 billion worth of damages noted so far nationwide by the Department of Agriculture, indicating that the region is the worst-hit area throughout the country.