The Department of Agriculture (DA) still considers the agriculture industry in Western Visayas as alive and kicking despite the devastation of super typhoon "Yolanda" here recently.
DA regional director Larry Nacionales said that the typhoon brought around P3.16-billion damage on both agriculture facilities and crops in the region.
"It's still good to know that 95 percent of our rice products have been harvested before the typhoon. We only lost around 17 metric tons of rice which are recoverable," Nacionales said.
He said that because of the devastation brought by the typhoon, he hopes that some farmers now would become open minded and learn how to improve their farming methods.
Nacionales was here Sunday together with DA Secretary Proceso Alcala to assess the agricultural impact in the region.
According to the National Food Authority which is an attached agency of the DA, the region still has 77 days of supply of rice enough for the coming Yuletide season and the coming festivals in the region.
"We expect another set of harvests this December. Our only concern is that we may lack milling requirements because several agricultural areas in the region does not yet have power. But we are doing everything to address this," Nacionales said.
The DA also reported that there is a sufficient supply of chicken and meat in the region. However, the DA expects that prices of commodities would still slightly increase due to the high demand during Christmas.
Sources from the DA said that they are planning to hold dialogue in the provinces in the region together with the Department of Trade and Industry, poultry producers, supermarkets and wet vendors market associations to ensure "regulated" prices of agricultural commodities for Christmas.
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