Crop, fishery losses due to 'Ondoy' swell to P5.4 billion

MANILA, Philippines - Losses to the agriculture and fisheries sector caused by tropical storm ‘Ondoy’ rose to P5.4 billion in Luzon as well as in Zamboanga del Sur, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Marites D. Bernardo, chief of the DA Central Action Center reported that damage to the rice sector alone was heaviest at P4.2 billion, followed by destroyed irrigation facilities at P818.6 million.

Bernardo further reported production losses for other commodities  consist of the following: fisheries – P128 million; high value commercial crops (HVCC) – P127 million; corn – P64 million, and livestock/poultry – P41 million.

Other facilities damaged were valued at P1.3 million from the livestock/poultry sector and P189,000 from the fisheries sector.

Bernardo said rice crops from Regions  I, II, III, IVA, IVB, V, IX covered 168,065 hectares, out of which 25,592 hectares were completely damaged.

Lost were 243,898 metric tons of palay (paddy rice) from standing crops in reproductive/maturity stage.

Of  the P4.2 billion total loss in the rice sector alone, P4.1 billion was from the value of lost palay and P68 million from the cost of farmers’ investment.

For the corn sector in Regions  I, II, III, IVB, V, Bernardo said  affected were 2,873 hectares of which 639 hectares were destroyed.

Deemed lost was 2,888 MT of corn grains valued at P64 million, of which P37 million was from lost harvest and P26 million in  cost of inputs invested by farmers.

For HVCC in the Cordillera Autonomous Region and Regions  I, II, III, IVA, IVB, V, Bernardo said 1,863 hectares were affected resulting in a loss of 14,546 MT HVCC (11,465 MT vegetables, 371 MT mango, 94 MT banana, and 2,616 MT papaya), valued at  P127 million.

For the fisheries sector in Region  III, 5,905 hectares of fishponds with milkfish/tilapia/prawn were affected resulting to a loss of P127.5 million.

For the livestock/poultry sector in Region III and  IVA, a total of P 41 million was lost as 12,530 head of livestock (cattle, carabaos, horse, swine, and sheep) and 84,221head poultry died or were lost.

Thus, Bernardo said lost harvest has risen to 243,898 MT of palay which is 3.76 percent of the national target of 6,478,960 MT for harvest in October to December this year.

Bernardo said the loss reduced the regional targets as follows: Region III – 188,764 MT (11.74 percent), Region IVA – 25,755 MT (16.57 percent), Region IV B – 16,832 MT (3.94 percent), Region V – 1,742 MT (0.67 percent), Region I – 7,703 MT (0.01percent), and Region IX – 22 MT (0.O1%).

For corn, Bernardo said, the total volume lost is placed at 2,888 MT which is 0.21 % of the national target production of 1,396,394 MT for the fourth quarter. Thus, Bernardo said, the reduction to regional targets was as follows: R II – 897 MT (0.11%), R III – 763 MT (12.65%), Regioin IVB – 482 MT (7.99 percent), and Region I - 141 MT. (0.02 percent).

The DA is now preparing rehabilitation plans and is conducting intermediate intervention measures using available resources.

The activities to be undertaken include replanting of damaged palay crops with short gestating varieties, repair of irrigation facilities, planting of corn and vegetables, provision of biologics and drugs and  reseeding of aquaculture areas with fries/fingerlings as appropriate.