The agricultural damage brought by the impact of El Niño has reached P6.3 billion, according to Department of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Arnel De Mesa.
“The largest (damage) is still in the rice sector at P3.3 billion, followed by corn at P1.9 billion, and our high-value commercial crops at P1 billion,” De Mesa said during a Saturday news forum in Quezon City.
“If we look at our projection of losses due to El Niño, when PAGASA told us that there will be an El Niño, we estimated that around 120,000 hectares will be damaged. The latest report shows it’s around 60,000,” he added.
According to the Agriculture official, the most significant damage reported was in Region IV-B (Mimaropa), totaling P1.7 billion, followed by Region VI (Western Visayas) at P1.5 billion, and the Cordillera Administrative Region at nearly P800 million.
He added that the accumulated loss of 100,000 metric tons in rice crop production due to the drought has been significantly smaller compared to the damages caused by tropical storms, which range from 500,000 to 600,000 metric tons.
“Our interventions have been effective and, also, when there’s El Niño, there have been very few or almost no typhoons passing through from the last quarter of last year until now, causing no significant damage to our agricultural sector,” De Mesa said.
