Drought turns crops for people into feeds in Cagayan

TUGUEGARAO, Cagayan – Dried up stalks of stunted corn plants on parched swaths of farmlands have become animal fodder in this drought-stricken northern province, local officials there said. Around 39,957 hectares of corn farmlands are parched due to the El Niño phenomenon hitting the province, local officials told GMANews.TV on Thursday. According to Vice Mayor Black Villacete of Piat town, the sight of free-roaming cattle and other ruminants foraging on drought damaged crops have demoralized farmers – many of them not knowing where to get money for the next planting season. "Our farmers are already deep in debt. Where will they get money to finance the next corn planting season if they will get nothing from the current crop?" he lamented, adding that a line of healthy corn that used to command a good farm-gate price during a good harvest is now being sold to cow and other animal raisers for a measly P5. With only 13, 992 hectares of still standing crops left from a total of 53,589 hectares in the province, the Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) reported that 2,670 hectares are already totally damaged, the figure translates to an approximate loss of about P307 million. Provincial officials also revealed that the prevailing weather condition has resulted in losses in farmer’s income estimated at P600 million. Farther north in the coastal town of Aparri, Mayor Ismael Tumaru informed GMANews.TV that thousands of hectares of agricultural land that were planted with palay and corn were inundated by the the torrential rains of Typhoon Pepeng (Parma) last year. Double whammy Still reeling from that calamity, the farmers are being hit with another blow, this time the El Niño dry spell. "It’s a double whammy for us, this cropping is supposed to help us recoup from our losses that was caused by Pepeng, but look at what happened, we are again in a middle of a calamity," Tumaru said. In her report to Governor Alvaro Antonio last week, provincial agriculturist Dr. Mildred Abella said that 10,283 hectares of agricultural lands in rain-fed areas that are planted with rice, were found to be partially damaged. The report which recommended the declaration of the province to be under a state of calamity, showed that if there would still be no rains in the next few days, the areas in the tail ends of irrigation systems will suffer greatly from lack of water. Aside from being the country’s number one producer of corn and second highest producer of rice next only to Isabela, Cagayan’s other major products include sugar, tobacco, peanuts, and vegetables. But these crops, too, are being threatened by the drought. On Wednesday, the first batch of water pumps which Antonio said will be distributed to hardest hit areas, arrived, giving renewed hopes to farmers that their surviving crops can still be saved from the dry spell. Long term solutions In addition to measures implemented by the local government to mitigate the impact of El Niño, the governor announced that long term solutions to the recurring problem are already in place, including the construction of small water impounding dams in every municipality. "We have proven the effectiveness of these dams and we plan to continue building such until all municipalities will have its own water impounding system," he said. He added that the whole country may be suffering from the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, but the Cagayan Valley (Region II) is experiencing the worst effects of natural calamities in recent years. - Floro Taguinod/LBG/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV