Prices of agricultural crops are not likely to spike due to inclement weather as it chanced upon planting season, causing minimal damage on agricultural harvests, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Wednesday.
 
Arsenio Balisacan, NEDA acting socio-economic planning secretary, told GMA News Online that inflation rate could still remain within the targeted 3 to 5 percent in August, since wasted harvest crops were minimal. July inflation rate was pegged at 3.2 percent, the National Statistics Office reported.
 
 “This time, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA), nagpaplant pa lang ang farmers so damage in crops is not that extensive compared to Ondoy,” Balisacan said in a phone interview.
 
Unlike Ondoy, which caused massive agriculture damage at P6.766 billion-worth of crops, Gener and the subsequent rains wasted a “minimal” P150 million worth of crops, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala told GMA News Online in a separate interview.
 
The DA chief added that crops were still in a planting season, prompting minimal damage in harvests.
 
NEDA’s Balisacan added that farmers whose fields were damaged could still replant as it is still within planting season.
 
There is a chance that more than 90 percent or 24,032 hectares land planted to rice, corn, and vegetables – most of which are still in the seedling stage – will recover, Alcala said
 
Rice crops were hit with P131.49 million worth of damage, while the corn sector sustained P7.74 million worth of devastation, high value crops at P10.62 million, and fisheries at P2.28 million, the DA noted.
 
Asked about immediate impact of the monsoon rains in prices of harvest products, Balisacan said: “It’s too soon to tell.”
 
The NEDA chief said they are assessing damage on infrastructures and irrigation, which could spike prices of harvests significantly. — ELR, GMA News