FREE SEEDS. Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone (3rd from left) led the turnover of rice seeds to farmers of Dolores town on Monday (June 1, 2020). The governor said some 3,200 beneficiaries from Dolores received the farm inputs under the Rice Resiliency Program of the Department of Agriculture. (Photo courtesy of Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone)
TACLOBAN CITY – Some 3,200 registered farmers in Dolores, Eastern Samar affected by Typhoon Ambo received rice seeds and fertilizers from the Department of Agriculture on Monday.
Each farmer received 40 kilograms (kgs) of certified rice seeds and two bags of fertilizer per hectare of farm area and 20 kgs of hybrid rice seeds and three bags of fertilizer per hectare of farm area, Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone said in a statement.
“The seed distribution is part of the Rice Resiliency Program of the national government which aims to increase the country’s rice production, from 87-percent rice sufficiency level to 93 percent by the end of 2020,” he added.
Dolores is a third-class farming town in Eastern Samar with a population of over 42,000.
The provincial government was allocated a total of 3,210 bags of hybrid seeds and 6,215 bags of certified seeds.
Other beneficiaries of the farm inputs are rice farmers in the towns of Quinapondan, Oras, San Policarpio, Sulat, and Taft.
On May 14, Ambo brought strong winds and heavy to intense rains over the northern portion of Eastern Samar and the southern portion of Northern Samar.
The typhoon packed maximum sustained winds of up to 155 kilometers per hour (kph) and gustiness of up to 255 kph.
The hardest-hit areas are the towns of San Policarpio, Jipadpad, Arteche, Oras, and Maslog in Eastern Samar, and Bobon, Laoang, Lope de Vega, and Mondragon in Northern Samar. (PNA)
