Camarines Sur placed under state of calamity
Credit to Author: RHAYDZ B. BARCIA, TMT| Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2019 16:19:39 +0000
LEGAZPI CITY: Governor Miguel Villafuerte on Thursday declared Camarines Sur under a state of calamity as 8,331.43 hectares (ha.) of palay (unmilled rice) farm lands were destroyed resulting in P282.6 million losses from the onset of the dry spell.
Elena de los Santos, Department of agriculture regional director, said Camarines Sur had the biggest number of farmers and farmlands affected by the early stage of drought brought by the El Niño phenomenon.
Based on the March 14 partial damage report of the agriculture department in Bicol, Camarines Sur and Albay were the most severely affected by drought with almost 2,000 has. of palay plantations having no chance of recovery.
In Camarines Sur at least 1,838 has. of palay plantation and 1,717 farmers were affected with incurred losses of 3,000.12 metric tons or an equivalent of P69.3 million. In Albay, some 1,177.56 has. of palay and 1,712 farmers incurred production losses of 1,495.59 metric tons or P42.3 million.
Masbate province posted 456 ha. with 1,687 metric tons worth P28.6 million production losses, and Camarines Norte with 110.56 ha. with 278.75 metric tons lost or an equivalent of P8.3 million.
At least 3,101 farmers in plantations covering 4,740 has. planted to corn suffered production losses of 6,816 ha. or an equivalent of P133.6 million.
Meanwhile, Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara ordered an inventory of affected farmers and directed the provincial agriculture office to field agricultural technicians to monitor farmlands affected by the drought.
He also directed Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety Emergency and Management Office, to prepare a contingency plan for the onslaught of the El Niño.
Daep said previous record indicated that areas likely affected by the dry spell were farmlands in the the towns of Guinobatan, Jovellar, Oas, Pioduran, Polangui, Libon and Ligao City in the third district; and the towns of Camalig, Daraga, Manito, Rapu-Rapu and Legazpi city in the second district.
In the first congressional district of Albay, specifically in Barangay Cabasan, Cagraray Island, Bacacay town, palay mostly in the flowering stage had dried up and were left to rat in the absence of rain for more than a month.
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said the El Niño was just starting and might last until May or longer.
The El Niño Southern Oscillatiion is a recurrent ocean-warming and atmospheric disturbance resulting in deficient rainfall or prolonged drought in some areas and heavy rains, storms and typhoons in other areas of the world.
According to Pagasa, in the last 50 years, El Niño usually appeared every two to seven years, but the most intense episode took place from 1982 to 1983 because of the unusually worldwide effect of prolonged drought.
The agriculture department in Bicol anticipated that more farmers would be affected by the ongoing episode of the dry spell.
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