CEBU CITY, Cebu (PIA) -- Preventing further damage to the agriculture sector wrecked by El Niño and the necessary interventions required to mitigate more loss will be the priority agenda of the Food Security Cluster (FSC) here chaired by the Department of Agriculture (DA). 

“Initial reports in our record showed that El Niño’s damage to the region’s agriculture has reached around P29 million at the end of March this year,” said Elvin Milleza, chief of the Planning and Monitoring Evaluation Division of the DA Region 7.

Based on the initial reports submitted by 14 local government units from Negros Oriental, Cebu and Siquijor, there are already 1,759 rice farmers and 270 corn farmers whose farmlands have been affected by the aggravating heat, said Milleza.

Of the total rice farmers, 1,488 are from Negros Oriental or equivalent to 84.5 percent covering the municipalities of Mabinay, Zamboanguita, and Vallehermoso and the three cities of Canlaon, Bais, and Bayawan.

In Siquijor, the 141 rice farmers come from Larena, Lazi, Siquijor, San Juan, and Maria, while Cebu’s 130 affected rice farmers are from Tuburan and Toledo City, Milleza’s presentation revealed. 

Total affectation of rice lands in the three provinces covered 821.61 hectares, with Negros Oriental at 88 percent or 725.35 hectares.

For cornlands, only Bayawan City in Negros Oriental and the municipalities of Tuburan and Tabuelan in Cebu have been affected, based on submitted reports covering 134 hectares.

Milleza said his office is currently reviewing and validating the reports submitted by the concerned local government units (LGUs). 

He said he expects the number of affected LGUs in Central Visayas to rise, anticipating more reports to come in from other localities. 

Just recently, the PAGASA reported that 31 provinces in the country are experiencing drought, with 19 coming from Luzon and one from Mindanao.

Of the 11 provinces in the Visayas, three are from Region 7, namely: Cebu, Bohol, and Negros Oriental.

Interventions 

Among the interventions the DA regional office will implement is the provision of registered, certified, and hybrid seeds for rice farmers and OPV white corn and GM hybrid for corn farmers to provide ample support services for local food production and pursue supply-augmenting measures. 

The construction of solar pump irrigation projects started last week in Negros Oriental, Cebu, and Bohol, costing almost P10 million for mitigation and preparedness purposes.

Milleza said the region is not rice self-sufficient and heavily depends on imports, as the decline in rice production makes the situation challenging.

The DA7 official said that with the persistence of the dry spell to continue until May, their office is doing daily market spot checks to ensure the availability of rice supplies in the market and that they are not exorbitantly priced. 

“The prevailing prices of rice in the market, depending on its quality, ranged between P56 and P62,” said Milleza.

By this week, the FSC will meet to discuss other interventions to ease the impact of the dry spell on farmlands, high-value crops, and livestock.

Members of the FSC of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council 7 include the DA attached agencies, the regional departments of trade, social welfare and development, labor and employment, science and technology, budget and management, interior and local governments and NEDA 7.

Meanwhile, Carlo Gabriel Simbajon, supervising economic development specialist of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) 7, suggested that the FSC meeting should come up with a food map, where identified insufficient agricultural produce in the region can be addressed by the oversupply of said produce by another region. 

“The food map can guide planners on how to move commodities around and share with other regions that have insufficient supply. It’s like a regional trade of agri products,” said Simbajon. (FCR/PIA7)