El Niño damage to Phl agri sector now over P9-B

The effects of the weakening El Niño persist, as damage and losses to the country's agriculture sector are now estimated at P9.5 billion, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday.

Based on DA’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Operations Center Bulletin No. 11, the agriculture volume loss is now 426,798 metric tons (MT), affecting the livelihoods of 175,063 farmers and fishermen and damaging 163,694 hectares (Ha) of crop areas, of which 47,828 Ha, or 29.22 percent, are unrecoverable.

Rice remains the hardest-hit crop, with damage and losses estimated to be worth P4.6 billion from the volume loss of 185,561 MT, affecting 83,862 Ha of farmlands.

Meanwhile, the cassava industry incurred a 147-MT volume loss worth P3.42 million. Its areas affected are 26 Ha, of which 18 Ha have no chance of recovery.

On the other hand, corn had a volume loss of 180,807 MT worth P3.17 million. The area affected was 66,950 Ha.

Moreover, 12,856 Ha of high-value crops planted in an area affected by El Niño were losing a volume of 48,949 MT, amounting to P1.65 billion.

The fisheries sector was registered to have P57.72 million in total production losses, affecting the livelihoods of 2,686 fishermen. This includes losses to fish species such as tilapia, carp, milkfish, shrimp, catfish, seaweeds, and sea urchins.

Lastly, livestock and poultry have registered a loss of 2,403 heads worth P10.47 million. This includes chicken, cattle, carabao, goat, and swine losses.

DA said interventions worth P9.71 billion were provided to the affected farmers, which includes financial assistance, the provision of farm inputs, seedlings, and rice machinery, the development of irrigation projects, the distribution of native animals, the provision of diversified alternative livelihoods and technologies to fisherfolk, the installation of water pumps, the improvement of irrigation canals, the completion of cloud-seeding operations, and the issuance of Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation indemnification.