DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Jan. 18 (PIA) -- The Provincial Agriculturist Office (PAO) here has reported that typhoon Odette has caused more than P2 billion worth of damage to agriculture based on updated figures on Jan. 16 sent to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
The amount covers the volume of production loss of rice in 7,386 hectares worth over P250M; 5,957 hectares of corn worth P199M; 20,018,804 hectares of high value crops valued P903M; 80,484 heads of livestock of over P153M; and P673M of fisheries facilities and equipage.
The calamity affected 92,776 farmers and fishers, while agricultural infrastructure, machineries, and equipment have also been damaged.
However, the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 7 said these values are subject to validation.
DA-7 is currently dispatching teams to the four provinces to conduct damage assessment and validation brought about by typhoon Odette.
The teams are to validate the partial unvalidated report from the local government units, which reveals that Negros Oriental has the highest valuation loss of more than P1.4B as received from DA Field Office in the province.
The damages consist of high-value crops such as mango and agricultural infrastructure and farm machineries.
The said report also cites the province of Bohol as second in terms of damages with a valuation loss of more than P1.2B, comprising of damages on high-value crops and coconut trees.
Initial reports cite the municipality of Ubay as severely damaged.
Based on the submitted report by the local government units, Cebu comes third with an estimated damage worth more than P550M on agricultural infrastructure and various crops.
The island of Siquijor has the least reported damage with more than P150M comprising of high- value crops and agricultural infrastructure.
According to Regional Executive Director Joel Elumba, the region has already identified interventions to address the clamor to rehabilitate the estimated 90,000 hectares devastated by typhoon Odette. (JCT/PIA7 Negros Oriental with reports from DA-7)
