NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — Local officials placed Kabacan town under a state of calamity on Friday after losing P11.4 million worth of crops to rats foraging in farms since October.
David Don Saure of the Kabacan municipal disaster risk reduction and management council on Saturday said nine of their 24 barangays had been infested by rats since late October this year.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who was in North Cotabato Friday morning for a dialogue with peasants in Barangay Kitub in Alamada town, said he will extend assistance to the affected farmers after validation of the extent of the reported rat infestation.
Piñol and local officials distributed agricultural supplies to farmers in Kitub and provided the barangay a farm tractor with a mechanized field tiller for communal use.
Saure said they are certain the rat infestation will spread to other barangays in Kabacan, which is known as the rice granary of North Cotabato.
“More or less 500 hectares of farms in the municipality had been ravaged by rats,” Saure said.
He said municipal agriculture technicians recorded P11.4 million in crop losses in the past nine weeks.
The Kabacan municipal social welfare office said 491 Christian and Muslim peasant families had been affected.
Piñol said initial reports that reached his office indicated that the rat infestation first hit Barangays Cuyapon, Dagupan, Katidtuan, Lower Paatan, Upper Paatan, Pisan, Malamote, Kilagasan and Aringay and is feared to be spreading to nearby farming districts.
The Kabacan local government unit recorded P24.2 million in crop losses last year due to rat infestation.