February 9, 2024

Municipality in Antique, Philippines, suffers nearly US$600,000 damages to corn, rice production due to El Niño

The cost of damage caused by the El Niño phenomenon to rice and corn production in the Municipality of Patnongon, north of Antique, the Philippines reached ₱33.7 million (US$598,680).

Patnongon Municipal Agriculture Officer (MAO) Bernardita Salvador said in an interview on February 1 that for the whole of January, they monitored damages on rice amounting to ₱31 million (US$550,467) from 424.3 hectares of affected rice plantation and ₱2.7 million (US$47,943) from 118.25 hectares planted with corn.

"There is no more source of water with the rivers and deep wells drying up. Crops had been damaged," Salvador said. She added that the Igpayo and Sibalom rivers that used to be their sources of irrigation could no longer provide enough water to the farms.

According to Salvador, the local government unit (LGU) of Patnongon has allocated ₱800,000 (US$14,204) this year to procure rice and corn seeds for distribution to farmers, prioritising farmers affected by El Niño so they would have planting materials in the next cropping.

- PNA