Initial estimated Ulysses damage to agri pegged at P104M

The agriculture sector has so far incurred more than a hundred million pesos worth of damage after Typhoon Ulysses pounded Luzon on Thursday.

Citing initial reports, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Friday that agricultural damage and losses have been reported in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Region III and Region IV-A with a total amount of P104 million, affecting 2,839 farmers and 17,845 hectares of agricultural areas.

The volume of production loss is at 7,999 metric tons.

Affected commodities include rice, corn, and high value crops.

“These values are still subject to validation,” the DA said.

The DA earlier said that a total of 69,716 hectares of rice have been saved from CAR and Regions II, III and IV-A, with an equivalent production of 341,812 metric tons, amounting to P5.48 billion have been saved due to early weather advisories. 

As for corn, a total of 1,550 hectares were saved from Regions I, II, and III, with an equivalent production of  6,758 metric tons amounting to P85.62 million.

The DA said it is in close coordination with concerned national government agencies, local government units, and disaster risk reduction and management-related offices for the impact of Typhoon Ulysses and available resources for interventions and assistance; as well as with water management-related agencies for flood risk monitoring and dam water release.

“Affected DA-RFOs (Regional Field Offices) are continuously assessing and validating damage and losses in the agriculture and fisheries sector,” it said.

The DA assured the affected farmers and fishers of the following available assistance:

Prepositioned rice, corn and assorted vegetable seed reserves from DA RFOs
Drugs and biologics for livestock and poultry;
Survival and Recovery (SURE) Loan Program of Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC);
Indemnification fund from Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) to pay for the losses incurred

“The DA-DRRM Operations Center will continuously provide updates regarding TY ‘ULYSSES’,” the DA said. —KBK, GMA News