El Niño dries up 50 Butuan villages, burns P80 million

By BEN SERRANO
Correspondent

BUTUAN City–The local agriculturist said the city is now considered under a state of calamity as the dry spell badly affected 50 of 86 barangays here.

City agriculturist Rolando Buca said some 3,700 farmers have been adversely affected as the El Niño-aggravated summer destroyed some P80 million worth of crops, livestock and other farm products.

But in a statement signed by Eunice Montaus, information officer  of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Caraga, the Department stated that there were some 3,795 farmers throughout Caraga who were baldy affected by the dry spell.

The Department of Agriculture and DSWD regional offices said 13 municipalities, two cities and three provinces in Caraga were badly hit.

Adversely affected, according to the DSWD-Caraga, are towns in Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Sur, and Surigao del Norte or specifically, the municipalities of Taganaan, Buenavista, Carmen,  Las Nieves, Santiago, Jabonga, and Kitcharao, and Cabadbaran City.

In Surigao del Sur, the affected towns are Lanuza, Carmen, Madrid, Cantilan, Hinatuan, and Gigaquit.

The DSWD said the farmers  would be helped  through the government’s “Cash/Food for Work” program with the cooperation of the DA and local governments.

DSWD regional director Minda Brigoli said, “The data provided by the respective City/Municipal Agriculture Offices to the DA manifest an increasing rate of farm land which are not spared from the dry spell,” said Brigoli. “Along with the rest of the government, DSWD recognizes the urgency of responding to the situation of hunger affecting the poor in many parts of the country.”