Agri damage in W. Visayas hits P689.9M

BACOLOD CITY: Western Visayas has incurred agricultural damage of P689.9 million due to the drought caused by El Niño, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said on Monday, March 11.

OCD-WV spokesman Cindy Ferrer said the hardest hit area was Iloilo province, which suffered damage reaching P486 million as of March 6.

Also hit hard by the drought was Antique, which reported damage worth P115 million.

Negros Occidental came third at P77.7 million, followed by Aklan, P30,187,159 million and Capiz.

Ferrer said that 18,402 farmers and fisherfolk have been affected by the drought.

Among the local government units affected in Negros Occidental, Himamaylan City reported having a water shortage in six barangay, she said.

Ferrer said the Himamaylan City government has initiated interventions to address the effects of the drought in the affected villages, such as the delivery of potable water through water trucks.

The city government is also looking for other sources of water to address the situation, she added.

Ferrer said the province was already categorized as under drought conditions with more than a 60 percent reduction in rainfall for three consecutive months, in contrast to a dry spell condition, which sees a 21 to 60 percent decrease.

“In general, there is no critical low-level water yet in Negros Occidental,” said Ferrer, citing a report from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Earlier, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said he was leaving it to the drought-affected LGUs to decide whether they think it necessary to declare a state of calamity in their areas, admitting that no crops would be spared from the El Niño drought, especially when a farm is totally rain-fed.