Farmer sorting his palay harvest. Image from the Department of Agriculture website.
MANILA, Philippines—Damage to agriculture attributed to Super Typhoon Odette (Rai) has exceeded P9 billion with the Department of Agriculture (DA) expecting higher figures as more reports of losses were expected to come in.
The DA said in its bulletin released on Friday (Dec. 31) that Odette damaged 351,952 hectares of agricultural areas while the volume of production loss rose to 194,671 metric tons (MT).
Odette–the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2021—affected 132,658 farmers and fishers in the regions of Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao, Soccsksargen and Caraga.
Fisheries incurred P3 billion in damage, about one-third of reported losses for the vital sector, followed by the rice sector at P1.9 billion.
Coconut and sugarcane industries suffered P1.5 billion and P1.2 billion in losses.