Output losses from typhoon reach almost P2B
PRODUCTION losses from Typhoon Kammuri, which battered several provinces south of the Manila early this week, have reached P1.93 billion, the Agriculture department said on Thursday.
Volume of production loss has reached 106,525 metric tons (MT), affecting 47.639 hectares and 20,830 farmers, the agency said in a bulletin.
Reports from Regions III, IV-A and IV-B, V and VI showed that most of the affected crops were rice, corn and high-value crops, as well as livestock and agriculture facilities.
Rice losses reached P606.74 million, covering 32,179 hectares or 27,002 metric tons, while corn damage reached P142.64 million covering 5,486 hectares equivalent to 1,733 MT.
Meanwhile, 133,623 animals worth P40.2 million were. A total of 201 farmers were affected nationwide.
The agency said P1.13 billion worth of high-value crops were damaged covering 10,002 hectares of land or 77,837 MT.
Meanwhile, P11.72 million worth of infrastructure facilities were damaged including animal cages, warehouses and nurseries.
“Interventions are ready for distribution to affected farmers and fisherfolk in Bicol Region amounting to P181 million for rice, corn, high value crops, livestock, credit fund, relief goods, fishing paraphernalia, allocation for dry season planting and coconut seedlings,” the Agriculture department said.
Typhoon Kammuri, locally known as Tisoy was already outside the Philippine area of responsibility as of 8 a.m. on Thursday, according to the local weather bureau. At least 18 people died from the typhoon, the local disaster agency said.
The Philippines has ranked second as the country that is most affected by extreme weather events in 2018, think tank Germanwatch said in its Global Climate Risk Index for 2020.
“Japan, the Philippines and Germany were the most affected countries in 2018 followed by Madagascar, India and Sri Lanka,” Germanwatch said in the 15th version of the study released on Thursday.
The Philippine ranking was a big leap from 20th place in 2017. The country scored 11.17 points, with the death toll reaching 455, absolute losses amounting to $4.547 billion, and 0.48% loss per unit of gross domestic product (GDP).
“Countries like Haiti, the Philippines and Pakistan that are recurrently affected by catastrophes continuously rank among the most affected countries both in the long-term index and in the index for the respective year,” the think tank said.
Some countries including the Philippines were still in the process of recovering from the previous year’s storms.
The country is regularly exposed to tropical cyclones such as Bopha in 2012, Hayan in 2013 and Mangkhut in 2018 due to its geographical location, it said. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang
