OVER 2,000 rice and corn farmers in Central Visayas, nearly 300 of them in Cebu, have suffered some P30 million worth of crop damage due to the El Niño weather phenomenon as dry spells and drought intensified, the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas (DA 7) said Thursday, April 11, 2024.
The hit on the supply of these staple crops does not augur well for rice and corn prices moving forward.
In Cebu, the crop damage has amounted to P3.7 million so far.
For 130 rice farmers in Cebu Province, the crop damage was about 138.10 metric tons amounting to P3.2 million, while 160 corn farmers suffered 31.08 metric tons of crop damage worth P621,552, data from the DA 7 Office of the Regional Executive Director showed.
The DA 7 said the figures were based on its initial Damage Report as of April 5, 2024, submitted by the provinces of Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor on particular crops such as rice and corn.
In total, the agency logged approximately P30.7 million worth of crop damage on rice and corn for the three provinces.
In the province of Negros Oriental, 1,488 rice farmers suffered 1,007.26 metric tons of damage worth P21.2 million, while 110 corn farmers reported crop damage of up to 115.13 metric tons amounting to P2.7 million.
In Siquijor, 141 rice farmers sustained 103.6 metric tons of damaged crop worth P3 million.
There was no report provided on Bohol province.
The agency has yet to provide data on the latest production and crop damage of other produce in the region.
“Since last year when the El Niño advisory was issued, the Department of Agriculture Region 7 created and strengthened the El Niño Task Force including the Food Security Sector. One of the activities of the task force is the conduct of trainings, briefings, assessments and workshops, such as prevention and mitigation on the impacts of El Niño to crops, poultry, livestock; (and a) Damage Assessment and Reporting System,” DA 7 Executive Director Angel Enriquez said in the report.
She added that the agency has prepositioned and refilled the inventory of buffer stocks.
Monitoring
The DA 7 has also stepped up its weekly monitoring on water dam levels in coordination with the National Irrigation Administration and the climate outlook of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
It also intensified the monitoring of the Small-Scale Irrigation Projects or SSIPs, Small-Water Irrigation Systems or Swips and irrigation canals in the region.
The local government units (LGUs) have also augmented the buffer stocks for those not included in the DA 7 provision of farm inputs such as drums and hose.
Insurance
The LGUs have also provided insurance indemnity for those not covered under the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. in Cebu province.
The DA 7 said that as of Feb. 29, 2024, indemnity paid for damaged crops had reached P6.9 million to 1,238 affected farmers in Central Visayas.
Rice price increase
On April 5, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the prices of rice may continue to increase until July 2024.
In a forum Friday, April 12, on the regional inflation rate of Central Visayas, PSA 7 Director Ariel Florendo said that in March 2024, Central Visayas or Region 7 posted an average rice price of P59.24/kilogram (kg) for well-milled rice, P53.87/kg for regular-milled rice and P91.39/kg for special rice.
Florendo added that in Cebu Province, the price of well-milled rice was P59.78/kg, while it recorded P53.80/kg for regular-milled rice and P113.75/kg for special rice (due to the inclusion of imported special rice in the category).
The PSA 7 recorded rice inflation of 21.25 percent in March 2024, up from the 21.07 percent logged in February 2024.
Stable
In a text message on Friday, Erwin Goc-ong, chairman of the Cebu Market Vendors Multipurpose Cooperative (Cemvedco) told SunStar Cebu that rice prices have been stable for the last 10 days.
Goc-ong said there had been a decrease in the price of imported rice of an average of P110 per 50-kilo sack for the last 45 days, while local rice such as Ganador and Ivory saw price drops of P100 per sack.
“By experience, mosaka ang presyo sa imported ug lokal gikan (sa) middle of June, July, August to middle of September kay kining mga buwana gitawag nato og lean months. Then third week of September to October, mag harvest man ta. Moubos na pod ang presyo (sa bugas),” Goc-ong said in a text message.
(By experience, the price of imported and local rice will go up starting from the middle of June, July, August to middle of September because these months are what we call the lean months. Then on the third week of September to October, we harvest. So the price of rice will go down again.)
Last year, however, this pattern was not felt by the rice retailers due to the increase in the price of imported rice, Goc-ong said.
“I hope and pray this year dili mosaka parehas (that prices won’t rise like they did) last year,” Goc-ong said.
Dangerous
Last March, Jhomer Eclarino of Pagasa Visayas warned that the heat index in Cebu may reach the “dangerous” 51 degree Celsius level in the coming months.
Eclarino attributed the rise in the heat index, or how hot the weather would feel to the human body, to the drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon as well as the dry hot summer.