CANDABA -- Fourth District Representative Anna York Bondoc-Sagum over the weekend vowed to seek more government support for farmers affected by typhoons and floods in her district.

Bondoc-Sagum met with farmer organizations here to assess the status of rehabilitation works in the district and to gather recommendations on how to rehabilitate damaged farmlands.

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She told Sun.Star Pampanga that her district has been the worst hit in terms of agricultural damages.

“The fourth district has sustained the most number of damages in the entire province. We need to inform the government of this situation so that more assistance is accorded to our farmers who are starting to rise from this disaster,” Bondoc-Sagum said, stressing that they have already collated all of the data needed for reports to government agencies and to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Farmers here reported that some 12,000 hectares of rice farms have been devastated. Also, some 200 million worth of dikes and some 300 million worth of fishery damages were reported last Friday alone.

Bondoc-Sagum said the National Irrigation Administration is already providing one earth dike per hectare of damaged farmlands while fertilizer and subsidies and seedlings are also in place.

However, the congresswoman said the subsidies are not enough to achieve full rehabilitation.

“The situation needs more government support and some millions of pesos more in assistance that only the national government can give. Right now the country is importing rice from other countries. If our farmlands are not back and running our importation would surely swell,” she said.

“We are now informing the National Government of our needs here. If our farmers could get their farms running this planting season we could be ensured of available local supply and not contribute to a growing national need to import,” she added.

Bondoc-Sagum said she provide President Arroyo with relevant statistics to backup the requested support.