Eastern Visayas rice farming damage due to El Niño hits PHP193.8-M

TACLOBAN CITY, April 8 (PNA) –- Rice industry in Eastern Visayas posted a PHP193.8 million production loss due to impacts of El Niño phenomenon, affecting 8,973 hectares, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said, citing initial reports.

The prolonged dry season wreak havoc on the livelihood of 8,948 rice farmers in Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar provinces, according to Elvira Torres, DA regional technical director for research and regulation.

“The impact of El Niño is only mild since those farmers who planted early were able to harvest rice before the peak of dry season. It’s good that majority of our farms were planted on time,” Torres told PNA.

In Leyte, drought has damaged 4,994 hectares of rice farms in this city, Babatngon, Alangalang, Sta. Fe, MacArthur, Mayorga, Pastrana, Villaba, Palompon, Hilongos, Hindang, Inopacan, and Dagami towns.

About 2,063 hectares of farms in Samar province have been affected by drought, specifically in Catbalogan City, Calbayog City, Paranas, Pinabacdao, Jiabong, and Villareal.

El Niño also dried up 1,908 hectares of farms in Borongan City, Oras, Sulat, San Policarpo, Taft, Can-avid, and San Julian in Eastern Samar.

In Northern Samar, only eight hectares were hit by drought. These are located in Allen and Mapanas towns.

The farm department will distribute seeds to affected farmers to cope up production loss valued at PHP64.77 million.

In terms of rice, the loss is pegged at 11,400 metric tons with total value of PHP193.8 million based on farmgate price.

DA regional information officer Francis Rosaroso said the DA has identified three core strategies to mitigate the impacts of El Niño phenomenon.

These are maximizing productivity levels in unaffected areas, promoting preparedness and mitigation measures among farmers, and early preparations of rehabilitation interventions for heavily-affected farms.

“For areas without irrigation system, we have been providing pump irrigation equipment for open source and replace damage and non-functional pumps,” Rosaroso said. The region has about 159,000 hectares of farms devoted to rice cultivation with an annual average yield of more than 900,000 metric tons. Eastern Visayas is an agricultural area with 45 percent or 976,415 hectares of its total land area is devoted to agriculture. (PNA)

JMC/SARWELL Q. MENIANO