The El Niño-induced drought has wreaked havoc on crops and livestock in the province causing P458 million worth of agricultural damages, a provincial government official said Wednesday.

According to Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry Pamugas, the El Niño phenomenon affected 22,000 farmers across the island as it prevented them from preparing their lands for crop-planting due to lack of water.

Farmers normally start to prepare their lands for crop planting in the month of June but so far only a few have commenced, particularly those located near water-impounding areas.

Based on land preparation reports provided by 10 municipalities, only 233 hectares have been readied for planting, way below the total 58,000 hectares of farm area in the province.

 “Naay uban nakatanom. Kung naa man ganiy naka land prep, pipila ra na ka areas. So in reality kuwan pa g’yud ang uwan,” said Pamugas.

Pamugas added that data on land preparation remained incomplete as so far only the towns of Sierra Bullones, Garcia Hernandez, Corella, Maribojoc, Sevilla, Cortes, Valencia, Jagna, San Miguel, and Loon have submitted reports to the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist.

However, he noted that the delay in the submission of reports is likely due to the failure of farmers to start land preparation.

The agriculture official noted that despite the onset of the rainy season, rainfall has not yet been enough to allow farmers to recover from the months-long drought.

Pamugas, who has been one of the main proponents of the controversial and ongoing cloud-seeding operations, highlighted the need for continued generation of artificial rains.

“Kung alanganin pa g’yud ang uwan na tinuod, ato g’yung paningkamutan na mapadayon ang uwan na artificial,” he added.

Earlier, Board Member Mimi Boniel denounced the cloud-seeding operations describing it as a “waste of funds.”

“Despite the onset of the rainy season, as confirmed by PAGASA, funds have been allocated for cloud-seeding operations, a measure that seems to be redundant and unnecessary at this juncture,” Boniel said.

Boniel, during the SP’s regular session on Tuesday, called for the immediate halt of the operations and for the government to redirect its resources to more pressing matters. (AD)