The Eastern Visayas office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) disclosed that at least 4,000 farmers are experiencing losses due to pest attacks on their crops.
Nine towns in Northern Samar and seven in Eastern Samar are affected by the infestation.
According to the DA report, bacterial leaf blight and brown plant hoppers have infested 10,291 hectares of rice farms.
The DA according to U-Nichols Manalo, the regional DA head has already offered help to the farmers by sending teams to deal with the infestation.
The teams advised that initial response be that palays that are unaffected be harvested immediately and the ricefields be drained of water.
The infestation has already costed at least 10,57 metric tons of palay that was planted on 3,935 hectares of farmlands. The farmers numbering 3,607 from the towns of San Julian, Sulat, Taft, Dolores, Arteche, Oras and Jipadpad of Eastern Samar were the worst hit by the infestation. The farms of Palapag, Las Navas, Victoria, Allen, Lavezares, Rosario, San Jose and even the provincial capital of Catarman in Northern Samar were also severely affected by the blight.
Some 375 farmers that planted palay to 309 hectares of land saw 234 metric tons of palay destroyed by the infestation.
Farms in the Samar provinces are ravaged by these infestations is due to use of nitrogenous fertilizers, high humidity, indiscriminate use of pesticides that causes ecological imbalance. The pesticides kill even the natural predators that kill the pests.
Northern Samar has 34,988 hectares of land while Eastern Samar has 26,737 hecatres devoted to rice farming.
Post a Comment