ILOILO City – Torrential summer rains that brought flooding to different areas of Western Visayas last week left the region with losses in agriculture running to P96.3 million – an initial estimate of the Department of Agriculture (DA) as of Monday, May 8.
Some 2,686 rice farmers from the provinces of Capiz, Iloilo and Negros Occidental were affected, data from DA Region 6 further showed.
Of the 2,613.18 hectares of rice fields affected, 1,954.68 hectares were partially damaged (with chance of recovery) and 658.50 hectares were totally damaged (with no chance of recovery).
In terms of volume, production losses reached a total of 5,903.19 metric tons.
As of May 8, only the towns of Dingle and Zarraga in Iloilo, Dumalag and Sigma in Capiz and the cities of San Carlos and Cadiz in Negros Occidental have submitted damage reports.
The province of Capiz incurred the biggest losses at P93,664,400 followed by Iloilo province (P2,150,506) and Negros Occidental (P570,814.30).
The regional agriculture office started distributing assistance to the affected municipalities through its program Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
The heavy rains last week brought by a low pressure area and inter-tropical convergence zone affected more than 112,955 families or 51,741 individuals across the region, DA-6 added./PN
