BAGUIO CITY, March 22 -- The Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) has started mobilizing assistance to the rice and corn farmers of Ifugao, with the dry spell affecting the plantation areas.

Lawyer Jennilyn Dawayan, DA-CAR regional director, said on Friday that they had earlier mobilized the El Nino Task Force to conduct site validation and monitoring of the Rapid Damage Analysis and Needs Assessment (RDANA) through the provincial offices of the DA to collect actual data from the ground to assist them in decision-making.

Dawayan reported that the dry spell affected 1,311 Ifugao farmers tending 1,350 hectares of rice and cornfields in CAR. Of this number, 86.4 hectares were reported to be ruined, whi...