Damage to agricultural crops and fisheries in Negros Occidental, due to the drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon, has reached P340,725,540.92, as of May 24, according to reports of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist.
Damage to rice was placed at P306,736,598.61, corn at P17,102,799.31, high value commercial crops at P13,330,121, and fisheries at P3,556,022.
It also affected 10,042 farmers, tilling 6,904.25 hectares of agricultural land, Provincial Agriculturist Dina Genzola, said in her report to Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson.
Losses to sugarcane production are not included in the OPA reports, but according to Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, it amounts to hundreds of millions of pesos. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star)