This was the initial assessment of Serafin Santos, Nueva Ecija provincial agriculturist, who expressed fear that this may further increase due to the effects of Typhoon Lawin.
“More than 110,000 hectares of our rice standing crops in the whole province which were about to be harvested or were in their ripening stages were affected by the strong wind and rains,” Santos said in a radio interview. “At least 14 cavans per hectare in expected harvest were lost,” he added.
At that rate, it totaled to more than 1.5 million cavans. At P13 per kilogram, or P650 per cavan, it amounted to P1.01billion.
The grains were scattered away and the plants themselves lodged, he explained. Many of them were scheduled to be harvested this week.
“If (Typhoon) Lawin, will not change direction, further losses in output may happen,” Santos said.
The reported losses in palay harvest, however, were not much compared to the damage from Typhoon Lando which whipped the province at almost the same date last year. The losses in rice production last year were placed at P3.5 billion.
“Happily, the resulting flood from Typhoon Karen was not the same as last year’s,” Santos said. “The floods then carried silt which aggravated very much the destruction wrought on the standing crop,” he added.
As the weather cleared Monday morning, several farmers in the different towns of the province rushed in harvesting their lodged crop. They complained, however, that the rice traders had lowered their buying price at P12 per cavan.
Other usual palay buyers, they further said, stopped buying the harvest saying they don’t have enough drying facility or that another typhoon was expected to hit the province.
From the more than 75,000 hectares harvested areas before Karen, the Nueva Ecija provincial agricultural office reported an average harvest of 96 cavans per hectare.
The area devoted to rice production in Nueva Ecija was the biggest in Central Luzon. Its rice self-sufficiency level is at least 260 percent.
