THE El Niño phenomenon will not directly hit Davao City, but prices of agricultural commodities are expected to increase as neighboring areas will be affected.

City Agriculturist’s Office (CAO) head Leo Brian Leuterio said in an interview with SunStar Davao Tuesday, February 26, 2019, that the increase in prices will be dictated by the law of supply and demand.

“The good news about El Niño is that it is not going to hit Davao City. It’s already there, we have reports in Digos and some parts of Mindanao,” Leuterio said.

“The bad news about that is, even if dili ta apektado, apektado ang atong producing areas like Bukidnon and Kapatagan (The bad news is that we will be indirectly affected as some producing areas such as Bukidnon and Kapatagan will be affected),” he added.

Leuterio said if these producing areas will be affected, prices of supplies that the city is getting in these areas will surely go up.

“Another thing that we are very concerned about is Cebu and Luzon getting hit by El Niño, and these are very big markets,” he said.

“We are so concerned about it. Nagpa-convene na si Attorney Zuleika Lopez with the disaster risk reduction mitigation and meetings for that,” Leuterio said.

If the mentioned big markets will have low supply on some agricultural produce, they will offer other producing areas, such as Davao City, with a much higher price,” he said.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has approved the purchase of some projects that could help in mitigating the said situation in the city such as Water Catchment System.

“Sa karon, dili paman ta maigo, makaipon pa ta og tubig. In case maigo ta puhon, naa nata tubiog available (Right now, we will not be hit by El Niño so we could still reserve water. In case we will be hit soon, we will still have water available),” he said.