The estimated damage to agricultural production and farmland infrastructure caused by typhoon “Juan" (international codename “Megi") rose to P11.53 billion, after officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) updated the tally on Thursday from continuing reports of its field units. The rice sector sustained the largest loss, estimated at P8.93 billion, followed by high value commercial crops (HVCC) at P660 million, and corn at P367.96 million. Damage to fisheries is now estimated at P212.50 million, while livestock sustained losses of P10.62 million. The total cropland affected in the 21 provinces of the four Northern and Central Luzon regions covered an area of 449,553 hectares. The four regions affected were the Cordillera Administrative Region (Ifugao, Apayao, Mt. Province, Benguet, Kalinga, and Abra), Region I (Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union), Region II (Isabela, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Batanes), and Region III (Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Aurora, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan and Bataan). Pangasinan, Isabela and Nueva Ecija, the biggest provinces, also incurred the biggest magnitudes of damage, with losses estimated at P2.40 billion, P2.09 billion and P1.59 billion, respectively.
Farmers to receive assistance
Nine days after typhoon Juan made its landfall in northeastern Luzon, the DA continued to verify damages estimated by local government units (LGUs) and submitted to the DA regional field units (DA RFUs), in order to come up with validated data that will be used to determine how much assistance the department will provide, under its rehabilitation program, to farmers in hit-hard areas.
The DA, through the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), will also pay affected farmers whose insured crops were damaged by the super typhoon.
PCIC President Jovy Bernabe said his agency will distribute indemnity checks totaling P161 million to about 17,200 insured rice and corn farmers within 15 to 20 days.
Rice sector largest damages
Damage to the rice sector of the 21 provinces — the hardest-hit sector — included both damages to P8.93-billion worth or 523,013 metric tons (MT) of palay and 425,134 hectares of farmlands. Of the farmlands, 8,997 hectares were completely damaged, while 416,137 hectares were recoverable.
Damaged rice fields covered more than one-fifth, or 22.85 percent, of the country’s total area of rice farms that were supposed to be harvested from October to December — or 425,134 hectares out of 1,860,395 hectares.
Palay losses on the other hand registered at 523,013 MT, or 7.47 percent of the country’s forecast production of 6,997,964 MT.
Corn sector damages
An estimated 18,048 hectares of corn crops in 18 provinces — Abra, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mt. Province, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac — were affected, resulting to a loss of 26,986 MT of corn grain.
The damage to corn fields, on the other hand, covered only 2.80 percent, of the total area of corn farms in the country that were supposed to be harvested from October to December — or 18,048 hectares out of 645,695 hectares.
Corn grain losses on the other hand registered at 26,986 MT, or 1.68 percent of the country’s forecast production of 1,603,758 MT.
A total 6,371 hectares planted to HVCCs was affected, consisting of 5,072 hectares planted to vegetables, 681 hectares to mango and 609 hectares to banana. Lost production amounted to 21,710 MT.
Among HVCCs, the bulk of vegetable losses came from Mt. Province, Benguet, La Union and Pangasinan, while fruit losses were most marked among mango orchards in Pangasinan and among banana orchards in Apayao.
Losses to the livestock and poultry sector were estimated at P10.62 million, from the deaths or loss of livestock (carabao, swine, goat, cattle) and poultry (duck, chicken, turkey, geese) in CAR and Regions I and III.
Fisheries in the 16 provinces of Regions I, II, III and CAR sustained damages of P212.50 million, mainly from lost fishery resources from fishponds and fish cages that were destroyed by the strong winds and rains during the typhoon.
Total damages to infrastructure—farm to market roads and irrigation projects—was placed at P90.10 million, with the bulk of damages coming from affected irrigation facilities and the rest coming from damages to infrastructures for fishery, livestock and DA facilities.—DM/JV
