MANILA, Philippines?Crop losses due to tropical storms Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma) have reached P10 billion, Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Jesus Emmanuel M. Paras said Saturday.

Paras said in a text message that losses due to Pepeng grew to P3.2 billion as of Friday from P1.14 billion around midweek. Damage due to Ondoy was still pegged at P6.8 billion.

Some 478,000 metric tons of palay were lost to the two storms. This volume would have comprised seven percent of the national production target of 6.5 million tons of rice for the fourth quarter of 2009.

Corn losses reached 18,000 metric tons, more than one percent of the national production target of 1.4 million tons for the fourth quarter.