DA denies underreporting El Niño damage

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday denied underreporting El Niño’s damage to the agriculture sector after former agriculture secretary Leonardo Montemayor said at least 30 percent of sugarcane plantations in Negros were affected by drought.

The DA was just being careful in issuing damage figures, Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa said in a chance interview during the Philippine Inter-Agency Committee on Zoonoses ceremonial turnover in Quezon City.

Data validation and verification were being conducted before the information was released to the media, he maintained.

Montemayor earlier said that agriculture damage caused by El Niño is underreported as former Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Rafael Coscolluela had warned that sugar production in Negros is expected to drop by 30 percent amid the impact of El Niño on sugarcane plantations.

“I have to check if the report on sugarcane was incorporated in our official data,” De Mesa said.

The DA has reported a total damage of P5.9 billion to the agriculture sector, including P3.14 billion for rice production; corn, P1.76 billion; high-value crops, P958.06 million; fisheries, P33.83 million; livestock, P7.93 million and cassava, P3.25 million.

It did not mention damage to sugarcane plantations and coconut trees.

Aside from sugarcane plantations, coconut farmers also reported they were affected by El Niño, Montemayor noted.

In some areas, coconut trees produced fewer or smaller nuts and there were reports of the proliferation of coconut scale insects or cocolisap due to hot temperatures in the Zamboanga peninsula, Montemayor said.

While he cannot give a particular figure on the extent of El Niño’s damage, Montemayor maintained the DA’s report was smaller compared to actual losses in the agriculture sector.

Coscolluela said late-milled sugar fields have not been replanted due to dry conditions.

Negros Occidental supplies 60 to 65 percent of the country’s local sugar consumption, he noted.