More hog raisers will receive financial assistance from the provincial government of Negros Occidental next week, according to the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Chiqui Gonzales.
The 900 hog raisers, whose pigs died due to African swine fever and hog cholera, will receive P2,000 each.
The beneficiaries are from Ilog, Kabankalan City, Talisay City, Silay City, San Enrique and Valladolid.
Gonzales said there are still about 1,000 remaining hog raisers who have yet to receive assistance from the total 5,000 beneficiaries.
The release of the assistance are done batch by batch because of their compliance of the documents required to get the assistance.
In February this year, about 800 farmers whose pigs were hit by ASF in three towns in the 4th and 5th districts were given assistance.
Some of the hog raisers are still complying with the requirements, which include certifications from the barangay and the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices in their respective areas, Gonzales said.
Meanwhile, Gonzales assured that farmers affected of drought due to El Niño phenomenon will also receive cash assistance from the province.
“We also allocated funds for financial assistance but we are still finalizing the amount per directive of the governer,” she said.
“We have prepared prepositioned food items for the reported affected farners for food assistance,” she added.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist showed that damage to crops in Negros Occidental caused by the El Niño has reached P87,477,548.32 as of March 13.
Of the total amount, rice was the hardest hit crop with P87,034,807.52 while damage to corn was P442,740.80. A total of 15 of the 31 local government units has been hit by the drought.
Affected barangays are now 99 while affected farmers are now at 2,220.*
