By Manny Piñol
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will dispatch recovery intervention teams on the very first day of work, Jan. 3, to provinces affected by Tropical Depression Usman where damage to Agriculture has been placed at P300-million.
As early as Dec. 31 when the DA Operations Center has collated the data on the extent of the damage especially in the Bicol Region and Northern Samar, I have issued directives to Operations Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan to form teams to be dispatched to the affected areas.
The teams will be tasked to ensure that recovery interventions such as seeds and farm inputs are delivered immediately so the farmers could replant.
While the estimated damage to rice is very high, the farmers could still recover as most of the areas damaged have just been planted.
The fast delivery of interventions is critical so that farmers could replant immediately.
The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp (PCIC) has been directed to fasttrack the damage assessment so that insurance payments could be released immediately.
The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has also been directed to prepare Survival and Recovery Loan Funds.
The National Food Authority (NFA) has been ordered to monitor the rice supply situation and ensure that there is enough NFA rice in the market to prevent price increases.
I will fly to the affected areas on Wednesday and Thursday to check on other interventions which the victims of the calamity might need.
(Photos of flooding in Camarines Sur were downloaded from bicolstandard.com while the reports on damage were prepared by the DA Disaster Risk Monitoring Center which monitored TD Usman 24/7.)
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