The Department of Agriculture (DA) would provide at least PHP495.44 million worth of assistance to affected farmers and fishers due to the combined effects of Severe Tropical Storm Crising (international name Wipha) and the enhanced southwest monsoon or “habagat,” the agency’a Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Operations Center said on Tuesday.
The assistance includes the distribution of agricultural inputs, including rice, corn, and vegetable seedlings, to ensure immediate recovery of damaged agricultural areas in Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and Western Visayas.
The DA has also activated its quick response fund to help rehabilitate affected farms, which are mostly in the early planting and vegetative stage.
A loanable amount of up to PHP25,000 is likewise available for each farmer through the Survival and Recovery Loan (SURE) program of the Agricultural Credit Policy, payable in three years with zero interest.
Registered and insured farmers may also be indemnified through the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC).
Based on DA-DRRM Bulletin No. 7, the agricultural damage due to the southwest monsoon and Crising was pegged at 3,412 metric tons (MT), amounting to PHP134.66 million, affecting 6,377 farmers and fishers.
“These figures are still subject to change as we continue to assess the situation on the ground,” Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations and DA officer-in-charge Roger Navarro said in a statement.
The rice sector recorded around 3,075 MT in losses worth PHP121.88 million, in at least 7,911 hectares of rice lands in Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Tarlac, Zambales, Bataan, Batangas, Antique, and Negros Occidental.
Meanwhile, the DA said damage was also recorded in corn production at PHP5.34 million; high-value crops, including eggplant, hot pepper, pole sitao, pineapple, and legumes at PHP4.53 million; 262 heads of chicken, swine, cattle, carabaos, goat, ducks, sheep, and turkey in the livestock and poultry worth PHP2.85 million; PHP44,950 worth of loss in fisheries, including tilapia and milkfish fingerlings, as well as motorized boat and fishpond dike, affecting 10 fishers; and cassava amounting to PHP9,000. (PNA)