P3.22 billion in agricultural produce lost to 2 typhoons—DA

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The combined losses in agricultural production in the aftermath of typhoons “Labuyo” and “Maring” have climbed up to P3.22 billion, the Department of Agriculture said.

Latest data from the DA monitoring showed that a total of 237,522 metric tons (MT) of produce were lost.

Maring alone ravaged 14,868 MT of crops valued at P766 million.

Of the total damage, corn accounts for about two-thirds or P2.13 billion. This represents 203,319 MT of grains from 99,125 hectares of farmland.

Palay lost to the heavy rains was valued at P939.73 million or 29 percent of total damage.

This accounts for 23,616 MT in volume 56,030 hectares that were inundated.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said in an interview that the two recent typhoons accounted for just about a tenth of palay lost to bad weather so far this year.

“We’ve lost a total of 200,000 MT of palay since January,” Alcala said.

“But under the food staples sufficiency program, we have provided measures for an expected damage of up to 600,000 MT for the entire year,” he added.

The agriculture chief earlier reiterated that the recent heavy rains and resulting floods should not cause alarm since the crop lost would be replaced easily.

He said there has been practically no loss because of the ready support for the corn farmers affected, particularly in terms of seeds replacement crop.

As for high-value crops like onion, garlic, tomato and vegetables, damage was pegged 1,762 MT worth P7 million.

Also, 14,825 MT of bananas worth P130.7 million was lost. But agriculture officials clarified that the affected farms were geared to the domestic market – bananas for export are grown in the southern part of the country, which the two typhoons did not touch.

Finally, Labuyo and Maring claimed P6.4 million worth of livestock and P5 million worth of pontential fishery harvest.