IFUGAO

Drought causes heavy crop losses; P67M in Ifugao, P48M in LU

By DEXTER A. SEE

LAGAWE, Ifugao — Two municipalities of this province suffered damage to corn crops estimated at P67 million as a result of the drought that hit the country, the agriculture office here reported.

In La Union, meanwhile, it was reported that the drought adversely affected 19,112 farmers and caused crop damage estimated at P48,874,900,

The Ifugao agriculture office reported destroyed corn plants were either in their reproductive stage or early maturity when these were hit by the dry spell.

As a result, the plants had wilted and had no chance of recovery.

Although these were initial reports from the municipalities of Aguinaldo and Alfonso Lista, the damage is expected to rise when the assessment is conducted in all the municipalities of the province.

The two towns were monitored first because these are considered the top corn producers of the province.

Aguinaldo registered an area of more than 1,000 hectares of corn farms, with total loss placed at P15,292,706, while in Alfonso Lista, the drought destroyed 3,612 hectares of corn plants valued at P51,681,000.

The drought in the two municipalities adversely affected 1,445 farmers in Aguinaldo, and 12,035 in Alfonso Lista.

A team that conducted the monitoring and assessment said if the dry spell continued, greater damage would have been incurred.

It would have also caused damage to rice farms as well as the corn plants that are given a slight chance of recovery.

The teem said there are still no reported damage to rice farms here because the Magat Dam is still supplying sufficient irrigation water, but they didn’t know if there would be damage in the coming months although they were closely monitoring the situation.
However, with typhoon "Chedeng" that brought rains for two days, there is hope for recovery of the plants, thus averting further damage to farm crops.

The team, which is composed of personnel of the Department of Agriculture’s Cordillera Regional Office, the Provincial Agriculture Office and the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, is still busy gathering assessment reports from all the municipalities to enable it to determine the extent of the damage as well as possible intervention measures.

The team said after consolidating the reports, it will send copies to the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of Ifugao for evaluation and action.

In La Union, it was reported that of the province’s 20,977 hectares of rice farms, 12,416 hectares were devastated by the drought.

As intervention measure, the provincial government headed by Gov. Manuel Ortega assisted the farmers by giving them seeds and seedling for early maturing crops such as cassava, legumes, corn and other vegetables.


DPWH implementing P175M Ifugao infrastructure projects
BY JINA SHIRLEY G. DACMAY

LAGAWE, Ifugao – The Department of Public Works and Highways here is implementing State of the Nation Address projects, 25 regular projects and 45 Lower House projects with a total amount of P175.7 million.

Engineer Eugene Batalao, DPWH district engineer disclosed saying the fresh investment includes the P30 million SONA project which involves the concreting of the road spanning from Viewpoint to Awan-igid Section, Banaue for P10 million, Awan-Igid to Sumigar section, Banaue for P10 Million and the Sumigar to Mt. Polis Section still in Banaue for another P10 million.

For the DPWH regular projects, Batalao said the amount of P125.7 million will be for the widening and concreting of provincial roads.

It also includes construction and road openings of the Banaue-Hungduan-Benguet Boundary road ( Banaue-Hungduan-Benguet Bdry Road) and the Banaue-Hungduan-Bengeut Bdry. Rd. (Benguet boundary Road. Hungduan) which will link Hungduan town in Ifugao to Benguet.

The Lower House projects under the Congressional funds amounting to P20 million include concreting, widening, construction and road openings, construction of highway bridges, repair/rehabilitation of access roads, buildings and other structures, artesian well conduits and other public infrastructure .distributed from across the province.

Based on DPWH records, most of regular and lower house projects were already issued notice to proceed. Some projects have not yet completed pre-tendering and pre-construction preparations.

According to DPWH, they are confident that all of the listed projects shall be implemented as soon as civil works are completed and problems on road right of way for some identified project sites shall have been resolved.

Batalao said the completion of these projects including carry-over projects of 2006 will create major impact on agriculture and tourism in the province as there will be easier access and transportation of agricultural produce to the centers of trade particularly in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya and Baguio where most of vegetable produce of Ifugao farmers are brought.

With easier road access, commercial activities likewise will improve because of increased number of tourists, he added.