• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said on Wednesday, July 3, that he asked the Department of Agriculture for the release of emergency funds to address the pest infestation in nine local government units of Negros Occidental.
The pest infestation is an offshoot of the El Niño phenomenon, he said.
Zubiri said that the emergency funds will be used in the purchase of pesticides or insecticides.
As of the June 27 report of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, armyworms infestation damaged 484 hectares of cornfields and sugar plantations in Isabela, Binalbagan, Moises Padilla, Himamaylan City, and La Castellana, all in the Fifth District.
Armyworms also hit cornfields in Murcia, Kabankalan City, Ilog, and Cauayan, destroying more than 64 hectares of the crop.
Fifth District Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo said that experts from the National Crop Protection Center of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños are now in the affected local government units in his district to help address the pest infestation.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson welcomed the arrival of experts from UPLB.
“Any help that we can get is most welcome,” Lacson said, adding that whatever remedies available are now being applied to prevent the spread of infestation. | GB
