Fungus hits onion farms in Nueva Vizcaya

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Hundreds of hectares of onion farms in the southern part of Nueva Vizcaya were severely hit by a fungus, locally known as amag, causing the average harvest to drop sharply.

According to reports, the fungus has caused onion production in the affected areas to fall to 4.5 metric tons from the usual 10 MT.

This has also resulted in the price of onion to drop from P25 to P17 per kilo because of poor quality of the produce.

Severely hit by the fungus were nine villages in southern Aritao town, among them Bone North, Bone South, Cutar, Banganan, and Comon. Aritao is one of Cagayan Valley’s top producers of onions.

Local agriculture officials said the fungus was caused by prolonged rainfall and cold weather during the latter part of last year and this quarter.