The Antique Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) is seeking rice seeds assistance from the Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Office 6 after farms were flooded by the heavy rains spawned by Typhoon Jolina.
Antique OPA chief Nicolasito Calawag said there were 905 farmers in 14 towns of the province who were affected by Typhoon Jolina last Sept. 7 to 13.
“Most farmers, if given seeds, could still recover their losses,” he said in an interview Monday.
He said the seeds assistance would enable the farmers to replant their farms for the second cropping period.
Antique OPA seed coordinator Arlene Delos Reyes said they are now in the process of preparing their letter request and report to the DA regional office.
“By tomorrow, we could already send the letter to (the) DA,” she said in a separate interview.
Delos Reyes did not say how many bags will be sent by the DA but added the palay seeds will be one bag or 40 kilos for every hectare of farm for inbred, and 15 to 18 kilos per hectare for the hybrid variety.
Meanwhile, Serafin Yanga, the OPA planning officer II and the Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) natural calamity focal person, said the province has a total 723.395 hectares of partially and totally damaged rice farms.
“Damaged rice crops are of various stages from newly planted to maturity,” he said in an interview.
Yanga said the damage in the 14 towns due to flooding based on the farm gate price reached PHP5,046,800.
The towns that had reported damages were Libertad, Tobias Fornier, Barbaza, Anini-y, Hamtic, Tibiao, Valderrama, Patnongon, San Jose de Buenavista, Sibalom, Sebaste, Bugasong, Culasi, and Laua-an.
Source: Philippines News Agency
