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BUENAVISTA: The cost of damage caused by the El Niño phenomenon to rice and corn production in the Municipality of Patnongon, north of Antique, reached PHP33.7 million.
Bernardita Salvador, Patnongon Municipal Agriculture Officer (MAO), said in an interview Thursday that for the whole of January, they monitored damages on rice amounting to PHP31 million from 424.3 hectares of affected rice plantation and PHP2.7 million from 118.25 hectares planted with corn.
‘There is no more source of water with the rivers and deep wells drying up. Crops had been damaged,’ she said.
She added that the Igpayo and Sibalom rivers that used to be their sources of irrigation could no longer provide enough water to the farms.
Aside from insufficient water, Salvador said her office received information on Wednesday about the rice black bug (RBB) or rice weevil pest in barangays Igbobon and Amparo.
‘The Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) with the Antique Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO)
personnel are now validating the report about RBB in the two barangays,’ she said.
RBB, a small brown beetle with a dull or dark appearance and a hard outer shell, attacks rice, especially during dry spells.
‘Around 2.5 hectares of farmland in both Igbobon and Amparo are believed to be affected by the RBB,’ Salvador said.
She added that the local government unit (LGU) of Patnongon, as its intervention, has allocated PHP800,000 this year to procure rice and corn seeds for distribution to farmers, prioritizing farmers affected by El Niño so they would have planting materials in the next cropping.
Source: Philippines News Agency
