AGRICULTURE Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Tuesday damage to agriculture caused by Typhoon “Nina’’ already reached more than P 5 billion.
In an interview, Piñol told reporters as of Jan. 3, total damage to crops and other agricultural products was at P 5.32 billion while damage to facilities was at P160 million.
“Because of this, I decided to form task force ‘‘Nina’’ which will focus on Catanduanes, Albay, Cam Sur and Quezon,” Piñol said.
Piñol said in Cantanduanes, about 85 percent of abaca was damaged by the typhoon.
“We allocated P 55 million for the rehabilitation of abaca areas in Catanduanes,” Piñol said.
Piñol said the amount would be used to purchase planting materials and to give immediate assistance to affected farmers in the area.
The DA chief also assured other farmers in Bicol the government was ready to give the necessary interventions which would include bags of certified seeds, hybrid palay seeds, hybrid corn seeds, vegetable seeds and fruit trees seedlings.
Pinol said however the recent typhoon would have a big impact on the growth of the agriculture sector.
“I have to admit we would have to make some adjustments on our projection. I think we will suffer 2 percent reduction on our fourth quarter projection because 200,000 metric tons will be lost on palay alone,” Pinol said.
Earlier, Pinol said a 7 to 8 percent growth in the agriculture sector could be achieved within this quarter.
Pinol said this would translate to a full year growth of 3.5 to as much as 5 percent growth in the sector.
“ I would not be very optimistic at this point…because our abaca industry was wiped out. The coconut industry in Quezon and Bicol was also affected,” Pinol said.
