DA: Farm losses due to ‘Kristine’ nears P5B; but still enough rice

The Philippine agriculture sector still reels from the adverse impact of Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami) with losses nearing the P5 billion mark. In a bulletin posted on Thursday, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said the sector sustained P4.85 billion in damage because of the storm.

Some 120,315 farmers and fishers in Cordillera Administrative, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western and Eastern Visayas, Soccsksargen and Caraga regions.

Rice accounted for about 85 percent of the overall damage, totaling P4.12 billion. The weather disturbance damaged P50.41 million worth of farm structures and P26 million worth of irrigation facilities.

Losses were also recorded in high-value crops (P554.83 million), corn (P62.38 million), fisheries (P11.20 million), cassava (P10.38 million), livestock and poultry (P12.14 million) and machineries and equipment (P300,000).

DA director Lorna Belinda Calda said the National Food Authority (NFA) has sufficient rice supply amid the onslaught of typhoons that ravaged parts of the country.

“According to the NFA, we have enough supply of rice as of now,” Calda said in a special report aired by state-run PTV on Thursday.

Preparation

NFA administrator Larry Lacson said the grains agency has 4.3 million bags of NFA rice stocks that can be distributed to those affected by typhoons or other natural calamities.

“We are currently prepositioning stocks in preparation for upcoming typhoons,” Lacson told the Inquirer in a Viber message on Thursday.

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In a statement, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) quoted Calda, who said 1,447 bags of rice from the NFA were given to local government in Ilocos and Cagayan regions. Likewise, Kadiwa stores have been deployed in storm-hit areas to make affordable food supplies available to affected residents.

The DA is ready to provide cash and in-kind interventions to farmers and fishers who are affected by Kristine and those who may be impacted by Super Typhoon Leon (international name: Kong-Rey).

Some of these include P1 billion in quick response fund and P541.02 million worth of agricultural inputs that will be provided through the DA’s regional offices.