BAGUIO CITY: Twenty four towns in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) recently received more than P31 million worth of aid from the Agriculture Department to mitigate the effects of the dry spell on the region's agriculture industry.

Based on the data obtained from the Cordillera office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-CAR), the El Niño phenomenon has affected 35,824 metric tons of rice, corn and high-value crops worth more than P653 million.

The report also said that the corn commodity has been the most affected by the extreme weather pattern, followed by rice, with minimal effects on high-value crops.

For rice commodity, 4.16 hectares of farmlands has been affected in one municipality in Abra; 477.53 hectares in three municipalities in Apayao; 22.32 hectares in three municipalities in Benguet; 333.85 hectares in five municipalities in Ifugao; 1,304 hectares in five municipalities in Kalinga; and 184.43 hectares in seven municipalities in Mountain Province.

For the corn commodity, 3,739 hectares were affected in five towns in Ifugao; 2,322 hectares in five towns in Kalinga; and 2,719 hectares in one town in Mountain Province.

Among the interventions distributed by DA-CAR to the affected farmers are 4,492 units of HDPE hoses amounting to P10.4 million; 32 units of pumps and engine sets for rice areas amounting to P2.4 million; 12 units of open-source pumping sets for corn areas amounting to P1.8 million; five units of solar-powered irrigation sets for corn amounting to P13 million; 54 units of pumps and engine sets for high-value commercial crops amounting to P3.78 million; and 89,750 doses of drugs and biologics/vaccines for animals amounting to P359,000.

Since the reactivation of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Group El Niño in June last year, identification, site-validation identification and assessment monitoring activities of vulnerable areas in CAR have been undertaken that served as a basis for the specific interventions provided and are to be provided to affected farmers.