TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines -- The Department of Agriculture is moving to help farmers in Eastern Visayas which lost P140 million worth of produce to typhoon Frank.

DA regional director Leo Cañeda estimated the production loss of bananas at P56 million, corn at P34 million, rice at P21 million, fruit trees at P15 million, vegetables at P11 million and livestock and poultry at P3 million.

He said DA 8 and local agriculturists provided technical assistance to farmers in typhoon-hit areas, including the provision of rice seeds and seedlings.

Cañeda said the region would need 10,000 bags of certified rice seeds because local seed growers, whose farms were hit by typhoon Frank (international codename: Fengshen) and by flashfloods in February, produced only 32,000 bags of certified seeds.

Among the provinces in the region, he said, Leyte had the most need for certified seeds since 5,300 hectares of the 8,000 hectares affected by the typhoon were in Leyte.

However, Cañeda estimated that the rice production loss would only reach 8,000 MT, less than one percent of the projected total production of one million MT for 2008.

"The challenge now is how to maintain the (region's rice) sufficiency index of 115 percent," Cañeda added.

Cañeda said government provided incentives to rice farmers such as the subsidized certified seeds sold to farmers at P440 per bag but costs P1,200.

The national government would provide a P500-discount coupon for fertilizer on top of the P1,000 subsidy for fertilizer from the provincial governments in the region.