The Kabankalan City Sangguniang Panlungsod is eyeing the use of P1.9 million to aid farmers affected by the El Niño phenomenon.
SP Committee on Agriculture chairperson, Adolfo Mangao Jr., said that Kabankalan’s 2024 budget has allocated P900,000 to the City Agriculture Office to purchase water pumps for the irrigation systems and another P1M to the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office for livelihood assistance for affected individuals.
However, he said that there have been no requests to the city council for the utilization of these funds to aid the almost 1,200 farmers affected by the dry spell.
Reports from the City Agriculture Office said that about 978 hectares of rice areas have been affected by the dry spell, with damage placed at P41.7 million.
This is 18 percent of the total rice areas of the city which are rainfed but there were no irrigated areas that were affected.
This record has not yet reached the threshold for the city to be declared under the state of calamity, the reports added.
Mangao said that El Niño has also affected the livestock, which were not included in the reports from their agriculture office.
They will be waiting for the recommendation of the CDRRMO for the possible declaration of a state of calamity in Kabankalan, he said.*