By Cielito M. Reganit
MANILA, Sept. 16 (PNA) — The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday said that based on preliminary field reports, damage wrought by Typhoon “Luis” to agriculture was initially estimated at P409.7 million, mostly from rice and corn.
In a press briefing, Agriculture Undersecretary Emerson Palad said that as of Tuesday noon, damage to rice was initially placed at 15,499 metric tons – with an estimated value of P270.28 million – with 31,600 hectares (ha.) of rice lands affected.
Meanwhile, losses to corn was estimated at 9,988 metric tons amounting to P134.8 million with about 18,700 ha. affected.
Region II bore the brunt of the damages with 37,256 hectares of farmlands affected and incurred P262,188,527 in production losses.
It was followed by Region III with 8,700 has. affected and P60.5 million in production losses.
However, Palad said that despite these figures, “damage to rice and corn caused by Typhoon Luis has minimal effect to total national production figures.”
“Damage to rice and corn is less than 1 percent of the projected national production for 2014, representing only 0.08 percent and 0.12 percent respectively,” he said.
“Most of the damages to corn could also be recovered – around 80 to 90 percent – because we are now at the harvesting stage,” he said.
In the meantime, Palad said that rains brought by “Luis” may be beneficial to the agriculture sector in the long run.
“Much needed rains were dumped by the typhoon especially to rain-red farmlands in the provinces of Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya and Batanes,” he said.
“Significant increases to the water levels in major dams in the region were also registered because of the rains,” he added.
Prior to “Luis,” San Roque dam’s water level was only at 256.93 meters while Magat dam stood at 182.35 meters.
Palad said that the dams now have water levels at 264.32 and 189.24 meters, respectively.
In the meantime, the Agriculture official assured that DA regional offices have already deployed their resources to mitigate the effects of Typhoon Luis.
“DA offices in the affected regions have already started releasing seeds from their buffer stocks to the affected farmers especially in Region 2 so that they can immediately replant,” Palad said. (PNA)