ILOILO CITY — The Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas has recorded P262.58 million in production losses from the 10,186 metric tons of palay in various stages of development and 14.52 metric tons of high-value crops that were damaged by severe tropical storm "Paeng."

The DA in the region also reminded farmers affected to their respective local agriculture's offices their losses, especially those insured with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation to fast-track their indemnity claims.

"DA-WV personnel are in close coordination with the local government units in validating reports in order to determine extent of damage and include in the rehabilitation plan. If they are not insured with the PCIC, then they could not claim indemnity but they can be considered in other assistance like seeds if they are listed with the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture," said DA regional Agri-Fishery Information section chief James Earl Ogatis.

Ogatis said they are still assessing affected farmers in irrigated areas because there is a "big chance" that they could replant while they still have to validate those in rain fed areas.

The severe tropical storm has affected 10,023 farmers — 9,952 of them are in palay and 71 are on high-value crops, according to reports from the DA's Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and of the 14,269 hectares or affected palay, 2,638.33 hectares are totally damaged and the rest still have a chance of recovery since they are only partially destroyed.

The highest area with total damage was on the seedling stage covering 988 hectares and newly planted with 775 hectares.

Those in the vegetative stage covered 181 hectares, the reproductive stage was 322 hectares while those in the maturity stage were at 372 hectares.