Northern Samar – In response to the recent massive floods in Northern Samar, the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional office is preparing to distribute replacement rice seeds for the affected farms.
According to Philippines News Agency, DA Eastern Visayas regional executive director, the office is conducting an inventory of available seeds and has requested additional stocks from the Philippine Rice Research Institute and other DA regional offices. The DA is awaiting a go signal from the provincial agriculture office, as post-disaster damage assessments are ongoing. As of the end of November, the DA regional office has 2,000 bags of rice seeds, 920 bags of registered rice seeds, and 437 bags of hybrid rice seeds, along with inventories of corn seeds, assorted vegetable seeds, cassava cuttings, and native chicken. The DA reported that the floods in Samar provinces on November 21 and 22 caused agricultural damages and losses totaling PHP104.96 million, affecting 4,571 farmers and 2,751 hectares of land. Rice suffered the most significant losses at PHP84.50 million, followed by high-value crops, bananas, livestock, and corn.
