Ayudang naipamigay ng D.A. sa mga apektadong magsasaka, umabot na sa higit P1-B

Transcript

00:00 The total amount of Pinsalas Agriculture has increased to more than 2 billion pesos

00:04 due to the high temperature and the high number of farmers in different regions.

00:09 This is Clayzel Pardilla for report.

00:11 From 1.75 billion pesos last month,

00:18 the Pinsalas Agriculture's value has increased to 2.63 billion pesos due to the El Nino.

00:25 According to the Department of Agriculture,

00:28 the Pinsalas Agriculture's most abundant crop is rice, corn and vegetables

00:32 in the Mimaropa, Central Zone, Calamar Zone and 7 other regions in the Philippines.

00:38 But according to the DA,

00:40 It's still not that big in terms of total area

00:45 because the area that we planted rice is almost 1 million hectares.

00:50 This is only 10,000 so it's only about 1% in total.

00:54 But because the El Nino is still having an effect,

00:58 Pinsalas Agriculture is still expecting a big increase.

01:02 To be honest, we are at the height of El Nino now.

01:08 Hopefully by end of May, it will end and it will go down.

01:12 What we can do is give whatever seeds and fertilizers we can give.

01:22 Even other types of crops so that they can plant without requiring a lot of water.

01:30 According to the Directorate of the President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.,

01:34 the farmers have been helped.

01:37 The DA has distributed more than 1 billion pesos worth of aid to the affected farmers

01:44 such as rice, fertilizer, water, loans and insurance.

01:49 The agency is positive that the rice production will still reach 20 million metric tons.

01:56 According to the Philippine Statistics Authority,

01:59 the rice produced in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 4.8 million metric tons.

02:05 The DA is studying the buying price of rice from farmers

02:12 to increase the buffer stock of rice during calamity.

02:17 The procurement price is from 19 to 23 pesos from farmers

02:23 but traders can buy up to 30 pesos.

02:27 The DA's price monitoring shows that the local rice is from 48 to 66 pesos per kilo.

02:35 We expect that hopefully, it will go down by the second half of this year.

02:41 But as of the moment, since there are lingering effects of El Nino, I don't think it will go down as of the moment.

02:48 Khaley Zalpardilla for Pambansang TV in Bagong, Philippine.