MANILA - President Arroyo has ordered agriculture officials to import rice amid an expected supply crunch next year following devastating typhoons that battered the farm sector, her spokesman said Sunday.

Typhoon "Pepeng" (international codename Parma), which hit northern Luzon island Saturday, leaving at least 15 dead, swamped large swathes of farm land just a week after tropical storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rainfall in more than four decades on Manila.

Ketsana left 293 dead and affected over three million people.

The typhoons have caused extensive damage to the farm sector and Arroyo has ordered free seedlings for farmers, her spokesman Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said.

"Secondly, President Arroyo is anticipating food shortages (and) she has ordered the Department of Agriculture to import (rice) at the earliest possible time," Remonde said.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said initial damage to the farm sector wrought by the two typhoons stood at 5.5 billion pesos (117 million dollars). The figure was expected to rise once a full assessment of the damage comes in.

Yap said there were enough stocks of rice for the whole year, but the impact on the supply could be felt by the first half of next year.

"We don't see a supply problem for 2009, because that is provided for in our buffer stock," Yap said over local radio. "Our issue now is dry crops for 2010."

The Philippines relies heavily on imports to feed its rapidly growing population of 92 million. In 2008, the country was forced to buy some 2.3 million tonnes of the crop despite record world prices. This year, it has so far imported 1.7 million tons from Vietnam.

Ketsana however has not spared rice producer Vietnam, where it killed 162 people and flooded large areas in the countryside.