By Christine Cudis | Philippine News Agency
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) on Thursday (Dec. 23) is using its floating assets for relief operations in areas isolated after Typhoon Odette.
“The DA-BFAR will go all-out in our relief assistance to coastal communities affected by Super Typhoon Odette. More floating assets will be deployed in the coming days, including M/V DA-BFAR to carry more relief goods and boat repair materials,” Department of Agriculture (DA)-BFAR national director Eduardo Gongona said.
In an email, the agency said that during the first leg of a series of relief operations, DA-BFAR’s BRP Lapulapu will sail to the Caraga region and then to Eastern Visayas to deliver hundreds of sacks of rice, canned and dried goods, and hygiene kits from DA-BFAR’s regional offices in Central Luzon and Cagayan Valley.
Aside from relief activities, it has begun rolling out recovery efforts to help Filipino fisherfolk get back to their livelihoods at the soonest possible time, he added.
An initial hundred units of marine engines and boat construction materials for washed out and damaged boats were also loaded on the BRP Lapulapu.
The DA-BFAR allocated separate supplies for the construction of 5,000 units of wooden and fiberglass reinforced plastic boats for the two regions.
As of 12 noon on Thursday (Dec. 22), the DA said damage and losses have been reported in the regions of Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao, and Caraga, amounting to P3.1 billion and affecting 39,372 farmers and fishers.
The volume of production loss was put at 90,316 metric tons and 65,432 hectares of agricultural areas.
However, the DA also said that before the weather interruption, a total area of 11,454 hectares of rice had been harvested before in Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Davao region, and Caraga, with an equivalent production of 34,433 metric tons amounting to P615.53 million.
As for corn, a total of 2,452 hectares have been harvested from Mimaropa, Calabarzon, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Davao region, and Caraga, with an equivalent production of 6,965 metric tons amounting to P82.55 million. (PNA) – jlo
