Damage to agriculture by the recent southwest monsoon and tropical cyclones Mirasol, Nando and Opong has reached as much as P1.95 billion, the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center said on Monday.
The DA-attached agency said the total cost of damage is equivalent to 67,136 affected farmers in 67,128 hectares (ha) of affected areas, and 150,107 metric tons (MT) of volume loss.
As much as 55,572 ha, equivalent to 89.38 percent of affected farms, are deemed having a chance to recover.
The remaining 6,606 ha, or 11.62 percent of the total damaged areas, have been written off.
The latest amount of agricultural damage is 41.3 percent higher than the previous estimate of P1.38 billion, recorded on Saturday.
The bulk of the damage was on rice, equivalent to P1.27 billion from 44,274 ha of fields, with a production loss of 115,943 MT.
This was followed by high value crops, with P440.70 million from 6,838 ha of fields.
Production loss from lowland and upland vegetables, commercial crops, root crops, spices, legumes and fruits, was at 17,384 MT.
Corn sustained damage worth P223.33 million that affected 10,189 ha of land and 16,770 MT of production loss.
Livestock and poultry sectors suffered P4.93 million damage, with 1,628 heads of chicken, swine, cattle, carabaos, goat, sheep, duck, horse and turkey, affected.
Cassava recorded 9 MT of production loss from 905 ha of land, as well as P133,000 worth of damage from farm infrastructure, machineries and equipment.
The DA said it is monitoring other data from the regions of Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Socckskargen.
The DA has yet to give an estimate on the possible effects of agricultural damage on the market price of goods.
Assistance made available to affected farmers includes P766.42 million worth of agricultural inputs, such as rice, corn, and vegetable seeds; 1,651,623 pieces of tilapia, bangus and carp fingerlings; drugs and biologics for livestock; as well as 2,442,675 bags of rice stocks from the National Food Authority. All these will be issued to local government units and other relief agencies.
The agency added that P237 million worth of indemnification for insured affected farmers through the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. is also provided, on top of the Survival and Recovery Loan Program of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council with up to P25,000 loanable amount, payable in three years at zero interest.
The DA said it also continues to deploy Kadiwa rollingstores to affected areas to provide cheaperagricultural goods for sale.
The agency also assured affected farmers that it is monitoring agricultural commodities for any changes in prices, noting that a price ceiling is in effect in areas under a State of Calamity as mandated by the Price Act.
