By Eireene Jairee Gomez, with contributions from Eugene Y. Adiong
The government is poised to begin cloud seeding in areas hit by El Niño to help ease the impact of the drought on agriculture, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Tuesday.
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Data from the DA’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Operations Center showed that agricultural damage has reached P463.3 million since March 8 this year. This is equivalent to 1 percent of all agricultural areas.
In Negros Occidental, P6.1 million worth of crops were damaged as 143 hectares of farmlands had been affected by drought. A report from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist said the dry spell affected 253 farmers in seven barangay (villages).
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The DA said 16,000 farmers lost their income because of the drought.
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