By Madelaine B.Miraflor
It's been more than a week into 2019 and the Department of Agriculture (DA) is now poised to spend 20 percent of its budget under its Quick Response Fund (QRF), which gets replenished with P1 billion every year.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol
This, as the worth of damages the agriculture sector has incurred from Typhoon Usman has now breached the P1-billion level.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said as much as P200 million of the QRF may be withdrawn to deliver agriculture interventions to areas that are badly hit by Usman.
QRF is a built-in budgetary allocation that represents pre-disaster or standby funds for agencies in order to immediately assist areas stricken by catastrophes and crisis.
Unlike the calamity fund, the QRF does not require the recommendation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council (NDRRMC) or the approval of Office of the President (OP) to allow its use and release.
DA-Field Programs Operational Planning Division chief Christopher Morales said that DA's QRF for 2018, which also stood around P1 billion, has already been fully utilized. In the previous years, QRF only gets a budget of P500 million annually.
A data from the DA's Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC) showed that Usman's damages and losses to the agriculture sector already rose to P1.18 billion, with 25,240 metric tons (MT) worth of farm output totally and partially destroyed.
Damaged agricultural areas now stand at 62,331 hectares, while the number of affected farmers and fisherfolks went up to 56,108.
Affected crops are rice, corn, high value crops, livestock, fisheries and irrigation facilities, while areas that were badly hit include the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Northern and Eastern Samar, Samar, Leyte, Quezon, Oriental Mindoro, Capiz.
Piñol said farmers affected by the typhoon are now starting to receive interventions from the DA and its line agencies.
Based on the report of DA Region V Executive Director Elena delos Santos, the first 5,000 bags of seeds of high yielding rice varieties are now being distributed to farmers groups. DA has particularly allocated 10,000 bags of hybrid and inbred rice seeds for the Bicol Region and another 5,000 bags for the Samar Provinces.