The damage to crops due to the long dry spell brought about by El Niño in Western Visayas has reached almost P2.912 billion, based on the report of the Department of Agriculture 6 (DA-6) during the 2nd Quarter Full Council Meeting of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council 6 last June 20.

National Economic Development Authority-6 police formulation and planning division chief Joyalita B. Tigres said that, based on the report of DA-6, El Niño had totally damaged around 28,199.47 hectares and partially damaged 39,209.49 hectares of crops in the region, which resulted in a production loss in volume of 122,779.34 metric tons and production loss in value amounting to P2,914,933,067.04.

Based on the report, rice remained on the top of the most affected commodities with a production loss in value at P1,562,922,723.06, followed by high value crops at a production loss in value of 728,138,111.44, then corn at a production loss in value of P344,509,122.43.

Sugarcane production loss is at P215.7 million.

The other commodities affected by the El Niño phenomenon were cassava, tobacco, coconut, aquaculture, poultry, and livestock.

The province of Iloilo, remained at the top most affected with a total production loss recorded at P1.518 billion, followed by the province of Negros Occidental at P518.1 million and the province of Capiz at P401.435 million.

Further, the production loss in value for Antique is at P274.360 million, Aklan is at P127.678 million and Guimaras is at P74.591 million.

DA-6 regional information officer James Earl E. Ogatis, in a telephone interview, said that they had already distributed rice and corn seeds this first cropping wet season to augment and mitigate the effects of El Niño to farmers of Western Visayas.

Ogatis added that for rice, there are a total of 419,952 20-kilo bag rice seeds being allocated for the region and 239,060 of which were already delivered to the different local government units in the region and 177,905 of which were already distributed to farmers in Western Visayas.

Meanwhile, during the meeting, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 6 also revealed that, based on their Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center report, they had recorded a total of 541,338 families or 1,992,662 individuals in 3,144 barangays in Western Visayas that had been affected by the El Niño phenomenon.

DSWD-6 disaster response management division chief Erlyn L. Garcia said that their agency had distributed a total of 204,071 family food packs that cost around P141.499 million to the El Niño affected families.

Garcia added that they had also distributed a total of P5.616 million in assistance to 1,872 El Niño affected families in the region. (PIA-6)