The Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit in Western Visayas (DA-RFU 6) will come up this week with the final damage tally caused by “Odette” to their sector which currently is estimated at PHP5.78 billion, almost a month since the typhoon hit several parts of the region.
“We are trying to finalize it by Friday of course subject for validation because other reports might be bloated. We conduct cross-checking,” said DA RFU 6 Regional Executive Director Remelyn Recoter on Thursday.
The cross-checking will be done based on their planting report, especially on rice that was submitted by local government units before the typhoon, she said.
The over PHP5 billion damage, Recoter said, is huge since based on their database for the past 10 years, the billion worth of damage in the region occurs every three years.
“Odette” occurred two years after Typhoon Ursula in 2019, which also badly affected the agriculture sector.
“The damages were more on rice, high-value crops, poultry and livestock, fisheries and coconut,” she added.
The January 11 progress damage report of the DA showed that the calamity has affected 114,194 farmers and fisherfolks causing 1.212 million metric tons of production losses.
Among the impacted commodities, palay was the highest at PHP2.168 billion estimated losses while 83, 363 farmers were affected.
The rice crops were in various stages and some were supposed to be harvested during the last two weeks of December last year or the first quarter of this year.
Coming in second were the high-value crops estimated at PHP1.75 billion and affecting 5, 153 farmers.
The fishery production reported over PHP605 million losses while the commercial livestock and poultry recorded over PHP339 million damage, agricultural infrastructures destroyed were estimated at more than PHP281 million, and fisheries fishing paraphernalia at more than PHP150 million.
Recoter said while they understand that some of the agricultural technicians are also affected but once the report is finalized they will no longer entertain additional reports.
Source: Philippines News Agency
