ILOILO CITY – The Iloilo Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) has recommended declaring the province under a state of calamity due to the widespread infestation of the red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI).
Geron Magbanua, acting head of the Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO), said the declaration would allow the province to access additional funding from the disaster risk reduction and management office’s quick response fund when necessary.
“We want to safeguard our farmers early. The declaration will help us access our quick response fund,” Magbanua said in an interview Wednesday.
He said, however, that the provincial government had been instructed to use its regular funds first.
The PAO has PHP15 million in regular funds, which it plans to use for long-term interventions, including establishing temporary laboratories to mass-produce biological control agents.
“We are targeting to strategize putting up temporary laboratories. For now, the mandate of DA (Department of Agriculture) is to produce the mother spawn or the pure breed of biocontrol agents. We at the provincial government and municipal agriculture offices will replicate the biocontrol agents for distribution to those affected by the RSSI,” Magbanua said.
The provincial government also plans to provide cash assistance to farmers for the purchase of fertilizer and other immediate farm inputs to help control the infestation.
A PAO report presented during the PDRRMC meeting showed that the infestation had spread to 27 local government units (LGUs). Passi City and the municipalities of San Enrique and Dueñas have already declared states of calamity.
As of Oct. 5, the infestation had affected 10,342.72 hectares of sugarcane plantations and 9,491 farmers, with estimated production losses exceeding PHP1.81 billion.
Magbanua said the PDRRMC had forwarded its recommendation to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for appropriate action. (Perla Lena/PNA)
