TUGUEGARAO CITY – The damage brought to agricultural crops by the El Niño phenomenon in Cagayan Valley has already reached more than P3 billion, while at least 4,000 hectares of rice and corn plantations in Kalinga have also suffered heavy losses, field reports said Sunday.

Cagayan Valley’s Agriculture Executive Director Andrew Villacorta said the P3 billion estimated damage was based on the latest assessment and close monitoring conducted by his office in areas vulnerable to drought in the region.

He confirmed that the damaged crops can no longer be saved since they have totally dried up due to lack of water for irrigation.

Villacorta said an estimated 73,000 metric tons of palay worth P1 billion was already destroyed while 205,000 metric tons of corn with an estimated value of P2 billion was damaged along with P2 million worth of vegetables.

Cagayan Valley or Region 2 covers Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya.

To mitigate the impact of El Niño in the region, he said cloud seeding had already been started early this year. They are also preparing 1,000 water pumps to lend out to farmers who are near sources of water.

He suggested to affected local government units in the region to appropriate at least 40 to 50 liters of gasoline per water pump as subsidy to affected farmers.

Villacorta also reported that farmers in some coastal areas in Cagayan expressed relief when rains poured onto their fields last Thursday.

The towns blessed by rains were Buguey, Camalaniugan, Lallo, Gonzaga and Sta. Ana.

“Our farmers in some coastal towns in Cagayan province are now optimistic that this will be the start of the coming of more rains to save their growing crops,” he said.

In the Cordillera, meanwhile, the Regional Development Council said the totally and partially damaged rice and corn plantations in Kalinga province are found in the towns of Rizal and Pinukpok as well as in Tabuk City.

Kalinga is considered the rice granary of the Cordillera and is one of the major corn producers in Northern Luzon for the past several decades.

While the effects of the prolonged dry spell in the province are not that damaging because of the availability of water for irrigation from the Chico River, Gov. Floydelia Diasen pointed out the urgent need for both the government and private sector to work together to prevent bigger losses among farmers.

The Chico River is one of the 13 major river systems flowing from the Cordillera mountain ranges to the lowland communities, providing water for domestic, irrigation and industrial purposes.

Diasen said aggressive reforestation efforts must be undertaken by all concerned sectors in order to rehabilitate the denuded watersheds and forests so that the abundance of water flowing into the river systems will be brought back to normal. (With a report from Dexter A. See)