MANILA, Philippines - Damage to the farm and fisheries sectors caused by the current dry spell has reached P8 billion, a top Agriculture official said yesterday.

"As of this date, the P8-billion damage is the more verified one. There are reports of bigger damage [like the P11 billion as of Mar. 1 reported last week], but [the P8 billion] is the one that was already validated by our regions," Acting Agriculture Secretary Bernie G. Fondevilla told reporters yesterday.

Rice and corn accounted for more than half the damage, while fish and high-value commercial crops made up a "negligible" amount, Mr. Fondevilla said.

The P8 billion covered 14 provinces, which Mr. Fondevilla did not enumerate.

But he said the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley regions in northern Luzon accounted for bulk of the reported damage.

The Agriculture department has estimated that farm production losses could range from P8.09 billion under a "mild" El Niño case to as much as P20.46 billion under a severe "severe" one, with the tally likely more than P10 billion but still less than P20 billion.

But Romeo S. Recide, director of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, said in a separate phone interview yesterday that a P10-billion damage would already be "alarming and might translate to a contraction" for the agriculture sector in the first quarter.

Mr. Fondevilla said more than 200,000 metric tons (MT) of rice has already been destroyed, but clarified that any decision to import more of this grain on top of the 2.48 million MT already bought for this year will depend on whether the 7.2-million MT production target for the first half will be met and the final damage tally.