Crops in Cebu, Negros Or. Badly affected by Frank

The provinces of Cebu and Oriental Negros are among the places in the country where rice, corn, and other high value crops have been badly affected by Typhoon Frank.

In a press release, the Department of Agriculture said that damage to crop in the entire country already reached P3.3 billion.

Damage to palay was placed at P670.7 million with 32,607 metric tons lost to the recent typhoon.

Over 50,000 hectares were affected in the provinces of Western Visayas. The rest of the affected provinces are Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque and Romblon.

However, the DA said that the total palay damage will not make a substantial dent on the 2008 production as the losses represent just 0.95 percent of the production target of 3.44 million metric tons for the July-September crop period.

Further, corn losses represented 0.562 percent of the 2.51 million metric tons target for the same period, DA said. – Ferliza C. Contratista and Jessica Ann L. Pareja/MEEV