Typhoon hitting Cagayan at peak of palay harvest season

Super typhoon Juan is threatening not only people and homes in northern Luzon but the food supply. "It's the peak of [palay] harvest season now," said Val Perdido, Agriculture Department technical director for Region II, pointing out that more than 547,200 metric tons (MT) of palay in the Cagayan valley are still in the fields and liable to get damaged. Farmers have already harvested almost 364,800 metric tons of palay in the past weeks. "Yun nga 'yung problema ngayon. Kung tumuloy-tuloy ang bagyo, malaking pinsala ito sa mga pananim namin," Perdido said. Cagayan region is under Storm Signal No. 4, the highest alert since 2006 when typhoon Reming killed more than 700 people and damaged property worth over P5 billion. The Cagayan region contributes more than 10 percent to the national palay production. At present, more than 230,000 hectares of rice fields are planted with palay that are still in their "reproductive and maturing stages," according to the Agriculture Department official. This means palay could be harvested within three weeks, Perdido explained. Meanwhile, according to Ilocos region's Agriculture Department information officer Gloria Parong, 75 percent of crops in the region have been harvested already. These crops include palay and vegetables such as eggplant, bitter melon, string beans, okra, and sweet potato. As of posting time, only these provinces in the Ilocos region — Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and La Union — have been placed under Storm Signal No. 2. Juan is expected to weaken after it blows through the Cagayan Valley, traveling west. - Jesse Edep/ HS, GMANews.TV