El Niño damage reaches P12 billion

MANILA, Philippines - The El Niño phenomenon continues to take its toll on agriculture as losses due to the dry spell has already surpassed P12 billion, latest data from the National Disaster Coordinating Council showed.

In a situation report dated April 29, NDCC Executive Officer Glenn Rabonza said the estimated cost of production loss due to El Niño has reached P12.08 billion. The data is higher than the P11 billion damages projected by the Agriculture department in a moderate El Niño scenario.

Rabonza said the dry spell has destroyed 788,738 metric tons of rice, corn and high-value crops and has affected 536,420 hectares of land. The damages, the NDCC said, have affected the livelihood of a total of 478,725 families nationwide.

Damages were recorded in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Minda-nao, Davao and Socsksargen.

The latest crop damages were recorded in Caga-yan, Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao and CAR. In Cagayan, affected were rice corn, assorted vegetables, fishponds and fish cages in four provinces while in Central Luzon, the dry spell took its toll on rice, corn and high value commercial crops in seven provinces.

In Northern Mindanao, damages in rice, corn and high value crops may be aggravated by problems such as reduction of irrigation waters, occurrence of pests and disease infestations, high prices of food commodities due to low production and indiscriminate slaughter of breeding animals, NDCC said.

In CAR, the dry spell affected the production of rice, corn and high value crops in five provinces.

The region’s communal irrigation system and livestock were also hit.

To address the problems posed by the dry spell, NDCC said it is continuously meeting with other agencies to craft action plans. The Agriculture department, through the Bureau of Soil and Water Management, is still implementing cloud-seeding operations to save the remaining standing crops.

NDCC said as of April 27, a total of 569 cloud-seeding sorties were made in 10 regions. Other measures taken by the government were the giving of shallow tube wells, fertilizers, shower inducers, sprayers, irrigation tools, and vegetable seeds for farmers.

The government has declared a state of calamity in the entire island of Mindanao and in some parts of CAR, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley; Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Socsksargen. The latest areas to be placed under state of calamity were Kiangan, Banaue, Aguinaldo, Lamut and Lagawe all in Ifugao province.

A declaration of a state of calamity would allow the local governments to tap their respective calamity funds.

Specifically in Cagayan Valley, at least P6 billion worth of crops or some 50 percent of the country’s total losses due to the El Niño phenomenon, have been damaged due to the said abnormal weather.

In the latest El Niño damage report, the Department of Agriculture in the region said that the brunt of the damage incurred by the dry spell was on palay and corn with combined losses of at least P5 billion of the region’s total loss which is pegged at P6.6 billion.      – With Charlie Lagasca