Philippine Storm Damage to Agriculture Climbs to 4.38 Billion Pesos

09 September 2026, Manila, Philippines: The Philippines’ Department of Agriculture reported on September 9 that damage to farms and fisheries from the enhanced southwest monsoon, known locally as habagat, and four tropical cyclones has reached 4.38 billion pesos (roughly $77 million), with nearly 100,000 farmers and fisherfolk affected across eight regions of the country.

The department’s latest tally shows 99,663 farmers and fisherfolk hit by the extended stretch of severe weather, which included tropical cyclones Luis, Maymay, Neneng, and Pilandok layered on top of weeks of monsoon rain. Total farm produce losses reached 102,791 metric tons across 81,511 hectares of farmland, a figure that has climbed steadily through late August and early September as successive storm systems compounded earlier damage.

Rice farmers bear the brunt

Rice accounted for the largest share of the damage, at 46.69 percent, or about 2.05 billion pesos, followed by high-value crops such as vegetables and fruit at 31.44 percent, or 1.38 billion pesos. Fisheries losses came to 647.79 million pesos, with the remainder spread across corn, cassava, livestock, poultry, and damaged farm infrastructure such as irrigation channels and storage facilities. The Cordillera, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, and Western Visayas regions were all affected, with Pampanga province alone reporting 505 million pesos in losses.

The scale of rice losses is particularly significant because it lands during the main wet-season harvest, when a large share of the country’s annual rice output is gathered. Earlier government data from a September 2 assessment, before the damage total climbed further, showed that of the roughly 72,700 hectares affected at that point, about 71 percent of the land was expected to recover, while nearly 29 percent was considered a total loss, underscoring that a meaningful share of this season’s crop will not be salvaged regardless of the aid that follows.

Government aid follows the assessment

The Department of Agriculture, under Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., said it is preparing a comprehensive rehabilitation and recovery plan for the hardest-hit areas. As of the earlier September assessment, the government had already distributed 609.79 million pesos worth of agricultural inputs such as seeds and seedlings, delivered more than 9,200 bags of rice through the National Food Authority, paid out 35.67 million pesos in crop insurance claims to just over 5,000 farmers and fisherfolk, and made zero-interest loans of up to 25,000 pesos available to affected producers. Separately, department officials have suggested that the same habagat rains damaging standing crops in the near term could help offset some of the drier conditions expected later in the season from developing El Nino patterns, a mixed picture that illustrates how volatile this year’s weather has been for Filipino farmers.

The Philippines has faced a difficult run of extreme weather in 2026, with this latest damage figure adding to smaller losses reported earlier in the year from other storm systems. Rice remains the country’s most politically sensitive crop, given its centrality to food security and the government’s ongoing efforts to reduce reliance on imports.

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