BAGUIO CITY – Around 10,897 farmers in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) affected by Super-Typhoon (ST) Egay are set to receive various interventions from the Department of Agriculture-CAR (DA-CAR) after a thorough assessment and validation of agriculture damages brought about by the typhoon.
As of August 6,2023, the damages and production loss including infrastructure recorded by the DA-CAR Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center (DRRM-OPCEN) has reached P474 million of which, P461 million is the total value of rice, corn and high value crops or 60,889 metric tons, with the affected areas in terms of hectares recorded at 12,012 hectares, 6,346 of which being totally damaged, while 5,665 listed as partially damaged.
The damaged production facilities were recorded at P11.1 million, while 459 heads of livestock and poultry amounting to P1.3 million were affected by the typhoon.
The commodities affected were identified as white and yellow corn products located in 12 municipalities in Abra, 7 municipalities in Apayao, 4 municipalities in Ifugao,6 municipalities Kalinga, and 6 municipalities in Mountain Province including upland vegetables.
Majority of the affected plantations of high value crops were located in the 13 municipalities of Benguet including Baguio City.
OIC-Regional Executive Director Atty. Jennilyn Dawayan said that the DA-CAR is now in the process of finalizing the list of beneficiaries following the assessment and validation by field personnel coming from the Rice, Corn, High Value Crops Development Program, and Livestock banner programs of the regional agriculture department.
In the province of Abra, 109 identified affected farmers have received seeds from DA-CAR as part of the replanting of rice and other crops affected by the typhoon.