Black bugs destroy rice farms in Cotabato

KORONADAL CITY - A provincial disaster body has recommended that South Cotabato be placed under a state of calamity due to various factors, including the damage wrecked by black bugs and other pests on palay farms in the area. John S. Lorca, provincial disaster coordinating council coordinator, said Thursday they are mulling such move because infrastructure and crop damages in the last few months have reached about P72 million. "We have disasters such as flashfloods, tornado, and pest infestation that ravaged parts of the province and these are enough grounds to declare a state of calamity," he told reporters here. Some 2,465 hectares of palay farms have been infested with black bugs in this city and the towns of Norala, Sto. Nino, Tantangan and Banga, all in the second congressional district, and Tupi in the first district of South Cotabato Province, with the damage worth P4.5 million, data from the provincial disaster office showed. Tungro virus and stemborers also destroyed farm products worth some P256,263 in the province, it added. But Lorca said the biggest destruction in the province was brought by a tornado in Tupi town last month that devastated infrastructure worth P48.5 million in four villages. The tornado hit the town mid-March. It destroyed 71 structures made of light and semi-concrete materials and displaced 390 families, the regional office of the Department of Welfare and Social Office here said in a separate report. Before this, flashfloods swept into the towns of Polomolok, Surallah, and Sto Nino, destroying infrastructures and farmlands worth P18.3 million, Lorca said. These three towns have separately declared a state of calamity, enough to allow the Provincial Government to also declare the same with the approval of the Provincial Board (PB), he stressed. Under the Local Government Code, local government units are authorized to declare a state of calamity to allow the utilization of its calamity fund, which makes up five percent of their annual budget. The Provincial Government of South Cotabato may declare a state of calamity if at least three municipalities have made the same declaration. South Cotabato Daisy P. Avance Fuentes said she would endorse the recommendation of the provincial disaster body to the provincial legislative body for action. Reynaldo H. Legaste, provincial agriculture officer, earlier said there was no move to declare the province under a state of calamity owing solely to black bug infestation. Lorca said they decided to include black bug and other crop damage to the proposed calamity declaration so that affected farmers may also avail of financial assistance. According to a Department of Agriculture report, the black bug is a sap-sucking insect that often attacks rice plants. It is reportedly one of the most damaging insect pests and quite hard to eradicate considering its behavior and movement pattern. "It stays in cool, watery area like the rice fields where rice plants grow and they become dormant when the weather is hot or cold. They stay between cracks of the soil when hot and spread to the leaves of the rice plant at night time," it said. The black bug, which releases a foul smell when touched or disturbed, is reportedly most harmful during the dry season, the time when the rice plant starts to bear fruits.- Sun.Star Davao