SOME P230.6 million worth of crops in Davao Region were reported to have been destroyed due to the dry spell since November 2018.
Roy Jose Pascua, Department of Agriculture-Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DA-DRRM) focal person, said Wednesday, March 27, that among the affected crops are rice, corn, cacao, coffee, banana, mango and vegetables.
Davao del Sur has been hit hardest, with some 6,301 hectares of farmland already affected.
Pascua also said Davao del Sur farmers have felt the impact, including 3,363 rice farmers, 663 corn farmers, and 2,211 high-value crop producers.
“The damage is still growing kasi ongoing pa ang dry spell,” Pascua told reporters.
“As early as last year, we have been anticipating this weather occurrence. Sa region, it is Davao del Sur that is the most affected, they have a prolonged dry spell since November 2018. The rest, we are still monitoring. There are reports na the water level is low or insufficient,” he said.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) earlier this month declared that a weak to moderate El Niño is present in the Pacific region.
Pascua noted that Pagasa has predicted that El Niño conditions will continue until June this year.
“There is a 50 percent chance na aabutin ng hanggang fourth quarter of this year ang condition na ito,” Pascua said.
“We already pre-deployed open source pump for their water management needs. And for the production support, we already prepositioned buffer stocks of seeds,” he said.
Around 200 open source pumps were pre-deployed in Davao region.
Pagasa’s El Niño watch, which started last year, has been raised to El Niño advisory.