SAN JOSE, Antique – Rice farmers in four municipalities in the province incurred production losses worth around P4.49 million due to the monsoon rains that the Tropical Storm Jenny enhanced last week.
Provincial Agriculturist Nicolasito Calawag said on Monday that they have received damage reports from the towns of Hamtic, San Remigio, Tobias Fornier, and this capital town.
“There were 211 farmers in the four towns whose rice fields were flooded,” Calawag said.
There were 92 farmers in Hamtic town whose palay planted in 1,298 hectares of land in vegetative, reproductive and maturity stages were flooded, he noted.
San Remegio’s rice field areas of 780.25 hectares – planted with crops in the reproductive stage and tilled by 24 farmers – suffered from the damage.
“In San Jose, there were a total of 52 farmers with 174 hectares of rice fields being planted that were damaged by the monsoon rain,” Calawag said.
Meanwhile, he said the affected in Tobias Fornier were 442 hectares of land tilled by 43 farmers “whose crops were damaged by the flooding due to the enhanced monsoon rain.”
Calawag said that they are urging farmers from other towns in the province to also submit their damage reports to their Municipal Agriculture Officers (MAOs).
“As of now, we have palay seeds buffer stock which can be given as assistance to the farmers but that they have to first report the damage through their MAOs,” he said.
A bag of certified palay seeds per hectare is being given to farmers who need to replant. (With a report from PNA/PN)
