Benguet farmers lose P10 M worth of veggies due to frost

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The freezing temperature now being experienced in the Cordilleras is wreaking havoc on the country’s vegetable bowl in northern Benguet.

Frost, a solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air, has so far damaged 100 hectares of vegetable and cutflower farms in Atok town, Mayor Connie Balao told The STAR yesterday morning after checking the situation.

Balao estimated that Atok farmers have already incurred at least P10 million in losses due to the frost, which has been observed since last November.

At 7 degrees Celsius at 5:30 a.m. yesterday, only two notches up from the past days’ 5 degrees, almost half of Atok’s vegetable farms were already wilting, she said.

Affected by the extreme temperature were potatoes on their tuber stage, and green peas and radishes on their fruiting stage. Cutflowers and cabbages were also wilting, she added.

Atok, according to Balao, suffered the worse from November 2004 to February 2005 when at least 234 hectares of vegetable farms were covered with half-inch thick of frost, destroying at least P20 million worth of produce.

Atok, perhaps the town with the highest elevation — 7,400 feet above sea level — in the so-called vegetable belt in northern Benguet, has at least 250 hectares of sprawling vegetable farms.

The Benguet towns of Buguias, Kibungan and Mankayan also cultivate vegetables.

Provincial agriculturist Lolita Bentrez and a team of government agriculturists are now in Atok to check the situation for possible government intervention.

The agriculture department could not still give figures on the extent of the frost damage pending the submission of assessment reports by the municipal agriculturists, said Robert Domuguen, spokesman of the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera office.

Balao said they intend to declare a state of calamity "because our farmers need help."

"There is no chance for recovery," she added.

Balao, however, said the plight of the Atok farmers should not justify the importation of vegetables, since other vegetable farms could meet the demand.