Rice supply in DC still sufficient: NFA

The National Food Authority (NFA) assured Dabawenyos that Davao City has enough rice supply despite thousands of hectares of areas planted to rice in Davao region damaged by the long drought.
“We don’t have problems in rice inventory. In fact, we still have 560,000 bags of NFA rice which can last until November,” NFA- Davao City manager Virgilio B. Alerta told Edge Davao last Saturday.
Alerta said the city’s buffer stock of NFA rice was replenished last month with the arrival of shipment from Thailand and Vietnam.
He said the NFA-Davao City is releasing 50,000 NFA rice bags every month to 260 authorized NFA outlets in different barangays and public markets.
With only 10 to 15 percent market share, Alerta said, the NFA rice supply in the city is still sufficient. He said the price of NFA rice remains at P27 per kilo for regular milled and P32 for well-milled.
Alerta also said the 1,600 licensed commercial traders in the city have sufficient stock of commercial rice coming from Manila and Cebu.
“Rice supply from nearby rice-producing provinces in Mindanao is decreasing because of El Niño,” he added.
Department of Agriculture (DA) 11 regional director Remelyn Recoter said a total of 1,183 hectares of rice production areas are affected by the dry spell, of which 14 hectares are totally damaged.
Damage to the rice sector in value reached P12 million. A total of 1,390 rice farmers have been affected.
“Farmer’s yield dropped from 180 sacks to only 80 sacks per hectare as a result of the El Niño,” she added.
Aside from the rice sector, the corn sector was adversely affected.
Damage to the region’s corn industry reached to a total of 25 million, she said.
“A total of 1,320 hectares of corn production areas are affected by El Niño, of which 977 hectares are totally damaged,” Recoter added.
Total damage due to El Nino, she said, has reached a total of 2,503 combined hectares of rice and corn production areas, affecting 2, 564  farmers.
The director said the department also recorded damage due to the dry season in the high value crop (HVC) sector.
“Among the crops damaged under the HVC are coffee, cacao, and banana,” she said, adding a total of 1,544 hectares of areas planted to HVC were destroyed by El Niño. However, she said the data is still being validated by a team of agriculturists.
Meanwhile, she said, the municipal councils of Kapalong and Sto. Tomas and Panabo City in the province of Davao del Norte; Mati City and Tarragona, Lupon and San Isidro towns in Davao Oriental; Montevista in Compostela Valley, as well as Hagonoy in Davao del Sur recently passed resolutions declaring a state of calamity in their respective areas. CHENEEN R. CAPON