PILI, Camarines Sur -- The Department of Agriculture was allotted P370M from the P10B calamity fund the present administration set aside to assist and rehabilitate the agriculture sector in the Bicol.

        OIC Agriculture Regional Director Jose Dayao told the Bicol Mail the P370-M rehabilitation fund intended to assist the agriculture sector ravaged by two super-typhoons last year is divided into sectoral items under the agriculture concerns.

        Dayao said that big allotments included rehabilitation of irrigation facilities and the coconut industry in the Bicol.

        He said Albay and Camarines Sur would get the biggest allocations but did not provide specific amount for these two provinces hardest hit by the super-typhoons.

        Dayao said they had submitted the work and financial plan last February and now they are finalizing the actual budget in partnership with the local government units.

        He said the P370M would be spent on agricultural inputs, acquisition of equipment and other production support and that all these targets are expected delivered at the end of the year.

        The two super-typhoons, “Reming” and “Seniang”, had brought agriculture sector losses in Bicol to some P2.6-B worth of crops and agricultural infrastructure destroyed.

        The DA has reported some 101,308 farming families who lost their means of livelihood to two successive typhoons that ravaged Bicol a week apart.

        The super-typhoons had also decreased the sufficiency level for vegetables here, right after their occurrences, from 83.2 percent to 26.5 percent.

        Some P1.2-B worth of agricultural infrastructure was reported damaged that included aquaculture, irrigation and post-harvest facilities.

        The coconut industry has the most losses with more than P350-M worth of production destroyed while the high-value crops that included vegetables followed with an estimated P343-M worth of losses.

        Except for corn production with estimated losses of some P45M, all other agricultural crops recorded hundreds of millions in estimated damages.

        The devastation wrought by the two super-typhoons has also destroyed 29,581 hectares of abaca plantation all over Bicol, destroying at least P267-M worth of crops.

        For rice production, some 70,208 MT with an estimated value of P154M, from the total number of hectares planted last year, have been destroyed that directly and immediately affected some 23,085 families.

        Livestock and fisheries had their share of losses in the overall agriculture industry in Bicol at P137M and P138M, respectively.