The Department of Agriculture is seeing the recovery of agriculture sector from El Niño phenomenon in the second quarter.

DA Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla expressed hopes that amid the recorded P3.7 billion agricultural losses, the agriculture sector’s output will bounce back, expecting a 0.5 to 3 plus percent in growth in the second quarter.

“We’re also expecting that even as we probably suffer losses in the first semester that we would do a rebound in the second semester because for me in a way this is an opportunity, in the sense that this is our time to make sure that the infrastructure like the irrigation systems will be rehabilitated, restored, expanded even, and this is also the time to build small water impounding systems for the future, with this more areas will be irrigated come the rainy season,” he said in an interview.

He said as of February 17, the estimated damage to rice and corn amounted to P1.7 billion and P2 billion, respectively. A total of P1 million worth of damage in vegetables was also recorded.