LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—The Cordillera office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA-CAR) predicted there would be a 30-percent decline in the production of Kalinga rice farmers for this cropping season.
This followed the damage caused last week by Super Typhoon “Lawin” on the local agriculture industry.
Engineer John Socalo, the NIA-CAR regional irrigation manager, said the expected decrease in the production of rice farmers would be applicable to the farms covered by the NIA-assisted irrigation projects in Kalinga.
Socalo reported NIA facilities regionwide suffered over P362.5 million worth of damage while damage to crops within the NIA assisted irrigation systems were initially pegged at P355.5 million.
“Our field personnel are still conducting evaluation and assessment on the extent of damage inflicted by “Lawin” [on] our irrigation systems and the crops within the systems, thus, we expect that the initial estimates will increase in the coming days as soon as we will receive reports from the field,” Socalo stressed.
The NIA-CAR official said the initially reported damage had been inflicted on the agency’s national irrigation systems and communal irrigation systems in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province.
According to him, if Kalinga rice farmers were able to produce 150 cavanas of palay per hectare, their production for the current cropping season would only be at least 100 to 105 cavans per hectare.
This would mean a significant reduction in their yield that could probably have an effect on the stability of the rice supply in the region.
Socalo explained most of the palay in Kalinga were on their flowering and vegetative stages when the typhoon struck the province.
Socalo explained Apayao reported minimal damage to crops during the supertyphoon because rice farmers were able to harvest their produce before they were hit by Lawin.
He believes the affected farmers will be able to recover from the effects of the supertyphoon, saying the resilience of Cordillerans coupled with the support of concerned government agencies and local governments.