FARM sector damage caused by Typhoon Ompong has reached P26.7 billion, the highest since Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) wrought havoc in 2013 and caused P35 billion in production losses, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
“This is now the highest damage to the agriculture sector since Yolanda. Yolanda was about P35 billion and we are now [at] about P26 billion,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a press conference on Monday. The latest damage assessment report by the DA showed that the rice sector suffered the brunt of the damage brought by Ompong.
The DA report said about 517,175 hectares of rice farms were affected by Ompong, with an estimated production loss of about 765,484 metric tons (MT).
About 337,208 rice farmers in Northern Luzon incurred losses amounting to P14.534 billion, according to the DA report.
Typhoon Ompong damaged 214,596 hectares of corn farms, which had an estimated production loss of 496,881 MT valued at P8.172 billion, according to the DA. The DA report added that 175,547 corn farmers were affected by Ompong.
Piñol said the DA currently has over P3 billion worth of available interventions for farmers affected by Typhoon Ompong.
“One is our quick-response fund in the amount of P600 million, our crop insurance in the amount of P1.6 billion and our emergency loaning program that has P880 million,” he said.
Furthermore, Piñol said they are also looking at requesting at least P5 billion in suplemental budget from lawmakers to address the needs of the affected farmers.
“We could ask for a supplemental budget so that we’ll be given immediate funding for the needs of the affected areas,” he said.
“But if that doesn’t materialize, we can propose the inclusion of the said rehabilitation budget in the 2019 budget,” he added.
The DA report showed that Region 2 suffered the most production losses at P13.944 billion with about 786,240 MT of output damaged and 303,827 farmers affected.
Image credits: Bernard Testa