MANILA – The Philippine government is looking to import corn typhoon “Ompong” damaged 90 percent of its corn production, according to Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol.
“We may import corn at this point in time because grabe po ‘yung… actually wala po tayong kakulangan before ‘Ompong’ but you have to understand na ‘yung pinakamalaking damage na nangyari sa ‘Ompong’ actually mais ang tinamaan, unlike palay na makakarecover pa,” Piñol said.
“‘Yung mais kasi there is seasonality to it. Hindi ka pwedeng magtanim right after nasira ka. Ang nangyari 90 percent ng ating corn production ay nasira po ng ‘Ompong’ and in order to fill up the gap na kailangan ng ating mga feed millers, we really have to make sure na we are able to source corn supply from the outside,” he added.
The Agriculture chief pointed out that there is nothing wrong with importation as long as it would benefit farmers and fishermen.
“We achieve corn sufficiency two years after the Duterte administration took over but as you know the reality of agriculture in this country is that we are on the path of typhoons and tropical depressions,” Piñol said.
“So realidad po ito ng agrikultura. In times like this we need to be practical, there’s nothing wrong with importing what we need for as long as we do not place our farmers and our fishermen at their disadvantage,” he added.
The Department of Agriculture has bared that the farm damage of “Ompong” reached P14.27 billion, noting that some 553,704 hectares of agricultural areas were affected, having a volume of production loss of 731,294 metric tons.
In Cagayan alone, the damage to crops was at P4.6 billion. (GMA News)
