Typhoon destroys crops worth more than half a billion pesos

MANILA, Philippines - Tropical storm “Frank" has damaged more than half a billion pesos worth of crops, affecting expansion in agriculture, which comprise a fifth of the Philippine economy. In a report, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said that the storm destroyed P555 million worth of farm products in an estimated 246,441 hectares planted with palay, corn, vegetables, and other high-value crops. As of June 23, the DA Central Action Center said that the typhoon damaged a total of 242,213 hectares of palay fields, 1,064 hectares of cornlands, and 3,164 hectares planted with vegetables and high-value commercial crops (HVCCs). Direct losses from all crop-production inputs used by the farmers in the storm-battered provinces reached P151,933,357 million and indirect losses from the combined value of the standing crops that were damaged—computed on the NFA support price of P17 a kilo or P17,000 per metric ton—amounted to another P402,991,055 million. Of these damaged areas, crops in 4,415 hectares were totally destroyed with no chance of recovery, while those planted in another 242,026 hectares still had chances of being spared. A total of P448.855 million-worth of palay in the reproductive and vegetative stages; P6.28 million worth of corn; and P99.78 million worth of HVCCs were damaged as a result of the typhoon, which slammed Metro Manila, the Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) area, Central Luzon and a number of provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao. Among the affected palay-growing provinces include Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Biliran, Samar, Northern Samar and Eastern Samar while corn fields in Batangas, Cavite, Quezon, Masbate and Cebu were also damaged, the center reported. Areas planted to vegetables and HVCCs in Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Quezon were likewise destroyed. The region of Western Visayas sustained the biggest damage amounting to P409.434 million, with 229,512 hectares planted to palay either totally or partially damaged. About 1,748 hectares of land planted to the grain that were damaged beyond recovery were in the mature phase of production, while 1,217 metric tons (MTs) were in the vegetative stage. The volume of palay lost, which totalled 17,784 MTs represented 0.52 percent of the target of 3.44 million MTs for the wet or main cropping season. Last weekend, DA Secretary Arthur Yap also ordered the National Food Authority to work overtime in distributing rice in Iloilo and other provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao where the latest typhoon had caused neck-deep floods, killed over a hundred people, and displaced thousands of families. - Cheryl M. Arcibal, GMANews.TV