Crop losses due to floods in Leyte now amount to P11.3M

published January 6, 2012 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- Rice farms in Leyte suffered losses amounting to P11.3 million due to flooding in the last week of December but the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional office assured that the 2011 production target will still be met.

Antonio G. Gerundio, DA regional executive director for Eastern Visayas, said a total of 4,630 hectares of rice fields were flooded and 11,518 metric tons of palay were lost.

Of the affected farms, 2,736 hectares were severely damaged and only 1,894 hectares have the chance to recover. About 3,000 farmers were affected.

Mr. Gerundio, however, said the damaged crops were still in vegetative stage and there is enough seed stock to replace them. The department is sticking to its 2011 production target of about one million metric tons. In 2010, the region harvested
964,000 metric tons of rice.

“The effect is only minimal and it won’t have significant impact on production targets considering that we immediately replaced seedlings that were washed away. Out of 11,000 seed stocks, only 2,000 bags were used for replacement for areas damaged by the recent flooding,” Mr. Gerundio said.

The incessant rains in late December flooded the farms in the towns of Palo, Tanauan, Burauen, Carigara, Capoocan, Dagami, Dulag, Jaro, Julita, La Paz, Macarthur, Mayorga, Tabontabon, Matag-ob, and Javier, all in Leyte.

Damaged rice farms were also recorded in the towns Silago, Sogod, and Saint Bernard in Southern Leyte. The region has around 155,000 hectares of land devoted to rice.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gerundio said they were stepping up their information drive to increase awareness among farmers of the effects of climate change.

For the next cropping season, which normally starts in May, the farm department will encourage farmers to plant early. -- Sarwell Q. Meniano