Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 20) — More than one billion pesos worth of agriculture has been lost due to an ongoing dry spell in several areas in the country.
The Agriculture Department’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center reported a total of ₱1.33 billion pesos worth of production loss for 2019 as of Monday.
This is a significant spike from its previous report of ₱464.27 million from March 11.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) announced the onset of a “weak” El Niño in February. It said El Niño has yet to intensify by the end of March and will continue until June.
A total of 78,348 metric tons in rice and corn production were lost due to the drought. The affected regions were the Cordillera region, Ilocos Region, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, Bicol, Western and Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen and the Bangsamoro region. The most affected areas were in the Davao Region.
From these regions, 84,932 corn and rice farmers were affected.
Agriculture officials said they have created a task force to conduct monitoring and mitigating operations. Cloud-seeding for some affected regions have also been scheduled for this week.
