Super typhoon Juan is threatening not only people and their homes in northern Luzon but their food supply.
"It's the peak of [palay] harvest season now," said Val Perdido, Agriculture Department technical director for Region II, pointing out that more than six million metric tons (MT) of palay in the Cagayan valley are still in the fields and liable to get damaged.
Farmers have already harvested almost four million metric tons of palay in the past weeks.
"Yun nga 'yung problema ngayon. Kung tumuloy-tuloy ang bagyo, malaking pinsala ito sa mga pananim namin," Perdido said.
Cagayan region is under Storm Signal No. 4, the highest alert since 2006 when typhoon Reming killed more than 700 people and damaged property worth over P5 billion.
The Cagayan region contributes more than 10 percent to the national palay production.
At present, more than 230,000 hectares of rice fields are planted with palay that are still in their "reproductive and maturing stages," according to the Agriculture Department official.
This means palay could be harvested within three weeks, Perdido explained.
Meanwhile, according to Ilocos region's Agriculture Department information officer Gloria Parong, 75 percent of crops in the region have been harvested already.
These crops include palay and vegetables such as eggplant, bitter melon, string beans, okra, and sweet potato.
As of posting time, only these provinces in the Ilocos region — Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and La Union — are placed under Storm Signal No. 2. - Jesse Edep/ HS
