October 20, 2010

Typhoon destroys Philippine crops

Super Typhoon Megi has destroyed huge tracts of rice and corn crops in the Philippines, officials said Tuesday (Oct 19), warning the Southeast Asian country could be forced to import more of the crops.

The crops were ready for harvest when Megi, the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines in four years, smashed the northern parts of the main island of Luzon on Monday (Oct 18), the officials said.

Initial field reports are not encouraging. The governor of the key agricultural province of Isabela estimating 46,400 tonnes of corn will be lost.

Benito Ramos, head of the government's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said that Isabela's current crop would have to be totally written off.

"All the crops are down-one hundred percent destroyed," Ramos said.

Those figures were a lot more severe than the initial estimates provided by the agriculture ministry.

The ministry said at least 33,000 tonnes of corn would be lost in the Cagayan river basin, which includes Isabela.

Although the northern third of the country is regularly struck by typhoons, the timing of Megi was crucial because it coincided with the biggest of the year's four harvests, Lizarondo said.

"That's the way it is with agriculture. Even if you put in all the inputs like irrigation and fertiliser, it is still very dependent on the weather. The Cagayan valley accounted for 24.26% of last year's corn production," Lizarondo added.