20 hectares of rice plantations in Caibiran affected due to continuous rains

By FLOR JACKSON, PIA Biliran
Janaury 13, 2011

NAVAL, Biliran  –  Some 20 hectares of rice plantations in the municipality of Caibiran in the province of Biliran were flooded due to the continuous rains being experienced in the province for the past weeks.

This was revealed by Mr. Jaime Casas, Provincial Agriculturist of Biliran in a mobile phone interview with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) -Biliran.

He informed that rice plantations that were affected and some totally washed out were in their vegetative stage and others newly planted.

Likewise, some rice farmers in said municipality who were about to start planting were unable to do so because the beds of rice seedlings were either washed out or covered with mud.

Mr. Casas said that as of now he cannot determine yet if there were damage to rice plantations and other crops in the rest of the municipalities in the province as they are still in the process of assessment.

He added that a team from the Office of the Provincial Agricultural Services (OPAS) in Biliran is currently going around the province to assess the damage to crops.

However, he clarified that the continuous rains left no serious damage to fruit trees and vegetable plantations in some areas of the province.

Meanwhile, Ms. Nascencia Abad, Municipal Agriculturist of Naval, the capital town of Biliran province reported in an interview with PIA that damage to rice farms were noted in the area.

Some rice farmers were able to plant during the planting season but the rice fields were flooded when continuous downpour started to set in.

She informed that rice seedlings ready for transplanting were drowned and washed out.

“Other rice farmers who harvested their rice when continuous rains started were not spared from the damage because rice stocked in the ricefields started to sprout even before they were threshed,” she said.

According to Ms. Abad, the damage was doubled when pests called “rice black bug” started to attack some rice plantations of Naval farmers.

She then advised the farmers to go to the OPAS and ask for some pesticides that control and eradicate this kind of pest.

“I also encouraged the Naval rice farmers to insure their crops with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) so that they will have something for the next planting season and the effects of the damage will not badly affect them financially,” she said.

“Fruit trees and banana plantations in Naval were also affected by the continuous rains these past weeks. Mango growers were unable to spray bloomers to their mango trees, hence, fruit bearing will be delayed,” she informed.