Ferliza C.
Contratista
CEBU CITY, April 22
(PIA) -- Department of Agriculture (DA-7) declared there is no report of
damages due to El Nino in the agricultural sector as of press time.
DA-7 regional
technical director Joel Elumba said “Our farmers in Region VII already
learned lessons from their experience with El Nino in 2010.”
He said it was at that
time that the agriculture sector suffered the highest amount of loss. It made
them aware of adaptation practices to lessen effects on their crops and
livestocks due to the extreme weather phenomenon
However, this does not
mean that the farmers will have to be confident it may not be a smooth summer,
because of a pronouncement from Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomic
Service Administration (PAG-ASA Mactan).
“PAG-ASA Mactan
reiterated that the mild El Nino might prolong until the last quarter of this
year and may affect the second cropping of the season,” he said.
Currently, DA-7
assured it is constantly monitoring the status of the agriculture production
due to this phenomenon. The farmers have already harvested 80%-90% of
their crops and are now on their finishing touches.
Furthermore, the four
provinces under the region produced 35 percent of their commodities.
He said it is still insufficient for the entire Central Visayas.
Nevertheless other region’s supply is filling up the gap.
Elumba calls on
farmers to give DA-7 feedbacks on El Nino’s effects, since they know their
farmlands more DA will just assist. (mbcn/fcc/PIA7-Cebu/with reports
from Joshua Carbonilla, CTU Devcom Intern)