By FREDDIE G. LAZARO and GENALYN KABILING
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) reported that the damage to crop by El Niño phenomenon nationwide has now reached to P8.5 billion.
This is the latest report on the estimated worth of consolidated damages by El Niño phenomenon on agriculture from Regions I, II, III, IV-A, V, VI, VII, IX, X, XI, XII, and CAR in which the production of these crops such as rice, corn, flowers, fruits, fishery and livestock were affected.
According to NDCC, the P8.5 billion damage was equivalent to an estimated 576,607 metric tons of agricultural products that no longer worthy for consumption while at least 301, 000 farming families were affected.
The NDCC also said that the hardest hit by dry spell is Region 12 with 117,844 families affected or more or less 589,220 individual.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Bernie Fondevilla disclosed that the “moderate effect” of El Niño will be exceeded should this calamity continuously onslaught and will stay long all over the country.
He theorized that the worth of damage to crops by El Niño in the country is expected to rise at P20 billion if this would become serious.
But Fondevilla expressed hope that the effects of El Niño in the country would not reach the worst scenario considering the on - going harvest time season.
In addition, the Arroyo administration is presently distributing water pumps, seeds and other assistance to help mitigate the effect of El Niño to farmers nationwide.
To anticipate the country’s possible scarcity of rice supply, the agency is studying whether the country is in need to import rice or not.
This developed as the government may have to recalibrate its action plan against the dry spell amid concerns on the worsening El Niño phenomenon in the country, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said Tuesday.
Olivar, in a news conference in the Palace, said concerned state agencies would like to intensify measures to mitigate the impact of El Niño on the country’s water and power supply, the agriculture sector, and other industries.
“We may need to recalibrate our response to the crisis. If it gets worse, I would think one of the things we can expect is intensified and expanded assistance to those affected by the crisis,” Olivar said.
“We may be seeing more measures as well as intensified measures being rolled out because of that finding that El Niño is turning out to be worse than expected,” he said.
President Arroyo convened her Cabinet Tuesday in the Palace where the impact of El Niño phenomenon on the people and the economy was discussed.
The President earlier directed authorities to take steps to ease the adverse effect of the drought in farmlands as well as the country’s water and power supply.
The drought has choked off water for irrigation and hydropower, destroying thousands of agricultural lands and forcing power outages in Mindanao. Reports said the damage caused by the El Niño dry spell has risen to P8.4 billion, surpassing government estimates under a moderate scenario.
The President has already placed Mindanao under a state of calamity to mobilize government resources to increase power capacity in the region.
Manila Bulletin
