ILOILO – The Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) recently distributed rice seeds from the Department of Agriculture (DA) to farmers affected by the prolonged dry spell or El Niño.
Elias Sandig, assistant provincial agriculturist, said on Monday the of towns of Igbaras, Tubungan, Tigbauan, Santa Barbara, Zarraga, Janiuay, Lambunao, Calinog, Dueñas, Barotac Nuevo, San Rafael, and Banate have claimed their seeds from PAO since Aug. 13.
“The DA has allotted 17,000 bags of rice seeds composed of 4,400 bags of inbreed and 12,600 hybrid seeds,” he added.
The farmer-beneficiaries were assessed and validated from the village level through the chairman on agriculture.
The list of beneficiaries or the affected farmers were forwarded to the municipal level, which became the PAO reference list.
Sandig said 40 out of 43 local government units in the province received the assistance for seeds.
“The towns of Lemery, Cabatuan and New Lucena have not received the seeds because only the towns that have reached 60 to 100 percent degree of damage were granted the assistance,” he added.
The farmers have the discretion, on which breed of seeds they will receive. Each farmer is given a bag of seeds that is good for one-hectare farm.
Sandig said the seeds distributed would be used by the farmers on the second cropping for the month of September.
Municipal agriculturists in the remaining towns, which were qualified for the seed grant, were advised to claim the seeds.
Based on PAO’s damage assessment report for cereals on April 8, a total of 7,495 hectares of land planted with rice in the province are totally damaged while 19,568 are partially damaged due to El Niño.
The crop damages have reached a total volume of 62,791 metric tons.(With a report from PNA/PN)
