The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Sunday reported on the damage wrought by recent typhoons on farms, saying the impact was minimal.

Undersecretary for Operations Jesus Emmanuel Paras, who heads the DA-Central Action Center (DACAC), reported that the damage to Regions 1, 3 and 4-A rose to P78 million from the previous assessment of only P20 million.

The report added that crops and livestock were damaged in nine provinces, namely: Ilocos Norte, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Laguna, Quezon and Rizal (Region IV-A).

For rice, a total of 6,945 hectares, which were mostly in the seedling and vegetative stage (6,128 hectares), were affected.

Lost were 1,485 metric tons (MT) of palay, with loss from production and investment estimated at P69 million. About 2,606 hectares will be able to recover while 4,339 hectares will not recoup the losses.

Corn fields covering 83 hectares in Region 3 were affected, leading to a loss of 315 MT valued at P4 million.
 
A total of 80 hectares of high value commercial crops (HVCCs) were affected, resulting in a loss of 718 MT of vegetables valued at P2.5 million. Loss to livestock was placed at P2.3 million.

The impacts of typhoons Gorio, Isang, Jolina and Kiko in Luzon and the Visayas and flooding in Mindanao to rice and corn production are as follows:

Rice: The total production loss was 15,035 MT palay, which is 1.54 percent of the national target production of 3,548,959 MT for the period July to September 2009. Region 6 lost 9.014 MT of palay due to Jolina. The figure is 1.11 percent of the target for the third quarter.