‘Rosita’ wipes out nearly 12 B worth of farm products in Luzon

The country's agriculture sector, the most vulnerable sector to typhoons, incurred damage and losses worth 11.82 billion after the onslaught of typhoon “Rosita,” the second strongest tropical cyclone to hit Northern Luzon this year.

Based on data from the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC), the typhoon affected a total of 90,052 hectares of agricultural areas in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions I, II and III, with an estimated volume of production loss at 98,060 metric tons (MT).

Rice is the most damaged agriculture commodity with production loss of about 11.39 billion.

There are about 4,921 rice farmers who were affected. These farmers are from Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Aurora, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, and Zambales.

The affected area is now at 76,696 hectares out of the total rice standing crop of 543,993 hectares, while the volume of production loss is at 73,337 MT.

“Most of the affected rice crops are on their reproductive stage, which were mostly reported as partially damaged,” the DRRMC said.

Region II is the most affected in terms of damage and losses in rice amounting to 11.20 billion, with Isabela as the most affected province.

Corn, another main staple, also incurred damages and losses worth

147.02 million, with as much as 6,824 affected farmers in the provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya.