THE ongoing El Niño episode has damaged 304,104 metric tons (MT) of crops, valued at P4.002 billion as of February 18, the latest report from the Department of Agriculture (DA) showed.
DA Field Operation Service Officer in Charge Christopher Morales said P3.43 billion of the total damage came from 2015 records, while P576.16 million was recorded from January 1 to February 18 this year.
Data from the agency also revealed that 101,553 farmers tilling 194,056 hectares of land were affected by the drought. Morales said 126,789 hectares of the affected area still have a chance of recovery.
The country’s corn sector took the brunt of the damage with 195,694 MT of production lost, amounting to P2.36 billion. About 133,480 hectares of land planted with corn were affected by El Niño, but 86,000 hectares still have a chance of recovery.
The rice sector, meanwhile, posted 94,934 MT of crops damaged worth P1.62 billion. The DA data showed that 40,221 hectares of the 59,463 hectares of rice lands affected have a chance of recovery.
Damage to high-value crops as of February 18 totaled 13,476 MT valued at P21.63 million.
The DA report said the most affected area in the country during the period was Region 2, or Cagayan Valley, with 89,074 MT, or P1.16 billion worth of farm damage. The bulk, or 88,724 MT, of this volume was corn. Corn damage in the region amounted to P1.15 billion.
Cagayan Valley was followed by Region 12 and Region 10 in terms of production loss. Damage to crops and livestock totaled P1.09 billion in Region 12 and P762.07 million in Region 10.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said El Niño is expected to gradually weaken from March to May, while El Niño-Southern Oscillation (Enso)-neutral is favored by May to July 2016. Enso-neutral refers to a period when neither El Niño nor La Niña is present.
Morales said the effects of El Niño to rice production in the first half of 2016 would be “minimal” following the projections from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA data showed that the country’s palay output in the January-to-June period may decrease by 1.48 percent to 8.2 million metric tons (MMT), from 8.32 MMT recorded in the same period in 2015.
Meanwhile, El Niño was seen as one of the contributing factors to the decline in rice production in 2015. The PSA said the country’s palay production reached 18.15 MMT, 4.31 percent lower than the 2014 output of 18.97 MMT.