LOOK.

Relief operations of Sagip Kanayunan, Damayang Simbahan laban sa Disaster,
Youth Action on El Nino Network and Bayanihan Alay sa Sambayanan in Bulacan for farmers affected by El Nino. More than 500 relief packs and health kits were distributed this morning for the first wave of relief operations.

Each relief pack contains 5 kilos of local rice, monggo, dried fish, and health kits.

Oplan Sagip Kanayunan rural emergency relief operations coordinated with the various organizations for the immediate relief of the victims of El Niño.

Many farmers are still demanding actual aid, and the next planting season would be more difficult for them because of the accumulating losses and debts.

Also joining the relief packs distribution are former DSWD Secretary Judy Taguiwalo and former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares.

Based on the Department of Agriculture’s conservative monitoring, the Philippines has so far sustained P5.9 billion worth of agricultural losses, with the rice sector the hardest hit with P3.14 billion in damages. The production loss in corn is worth P1.76 billion; high-value crops at P958.06 million; P33.83 million for fisheries, affecting 2,261 fishers; P7.93 million livestock and poultry; and cassava at P3.25 million. MIMAROPA has the highest reported damage with P1.71 billion; Western Visayas at P1.5 billion; Cordillera Administrative Region at P768 million; and Cagayan Valley at PHP562 million.

While the DA is claiming that the agriculture sector is faring better this time compared to periods in the past when we had El Niño, the damage is so extensive that rice inflation shoot up to 24.4%, the highest in the past 15 years. The local rice production also contracted by 2 percent or 100,000 metric tons (MT). The DA even lowered its target production for rice to 20.4 million MT for 2024.

Oplan Sagip Kanayunan (Rescue Countryside) is a relief and rehabilitation effort to benefit peasant communities ravaged by typhoons, droughts, and other natural calamities. It is a combined effort of farmers, peasant women, fishefolk organizations, agrarian reform advocates, institutions, church people, youth and students, and individuals. #