El Niño destroys P17M agriculture crops

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – The dry spell brought by the El Niño phenomenon had destroyed about P17 million in palay, corn, and high-value commercial crops in two towns of Negros Occidental.

A progress report of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist released yesterday stated that, so far, the P17,285,211 losses on crop damage and production covered 909.49 hectares of farmlands, affecting 886 rice farmers in Hinigaran and Hinoba-an towns, both in southern Negros Occidental.

Affected were 12 barangays in Hinigaran and 12 in Hinobaan Of the 17 million damage, the P16.6 million of  it was for palay alone.

OPA explained that crop damage took into account from seedlings to mature palay, while production losses include reproductive to mature palay.

Provincial Agriculturist Igmedio Tabianan said field assessment and validation of 31 local government units, excluding Bacolod City, is now going on.

Dina Genzola, OPA senior agriculturistm said that as assessment and validation of farms in other local government units continue, damage estimates may still increase.

Genzola said the provincial government was also identifying farmers covered by the Negros First Universal Crop Insurance Program. Under this, each of the enrolled or ensured farmers may avail themselves of P17,000 claim per hectare of farm damaged or affected by the dry spell.

Aside from crop damage and production losses, the dry spell also affected the water level within the Bago River Irrigation System, also in southern Negros.

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Provincial Office based in Bago City has recently recorded a drop of 40 centimeters in the water level. The diversion dam that forms part of the irrigation system has a depth of 52 meters. As of January 13, the water level was at 51.5 meters.  (FREEMAN)