Kalinga and Apayao provinces’ nearly 500 hectares of contract-farmed rice had begun harvest ahead of schedule in a bid to avoid crop damage from severe tropical storm Kristine.
Benito Espique, Manager of the National Irrigation Administration-Cordillera Administrative Region (NIA-CAR), said field offices had been directed to inform farmers in the provinces of Kalinga and Apayao to harvest rice planted under the contract farming program.
Under the program, Kalinga and Apayao farmers planted some 496 hectares worth of rice and were provided P50,000 worth of startup funds and P75,000 in processing funds. In exchange, a portion of the harvest will be sold to the government, and then sold to needy and vulnerable communities at a P29 per kilo fixed rate.
“I have already ordered the field offices to trickle down the information to our rice farmers to harvest the rice if they are ready and not wait some more to prevent possible damage in case Kristine brings heavy rains and winds,” Espique said on Tuesday, October 22.
Farmers had begun harvesting some 30 metric tons from the covered contract fields. According to the NIA-CAR, 234 hectares of the 496 hectares of land under the program were successfully harvested prior to Kristine’s arrival.
However, farmers were unable to harvest everything in time, with portions of the region’s rice farmland still hit by Kristine.
