Prices of rice and vegetables may increase following the devastation brought by Super Typhoon ''Karding'' in the different parts of Luzon.

During the Laging Handa public briefing Thursday, Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban stressed the possible movement in the price of crops badly affected by the recent typhoon.

"There might be an increase (in the prices) especially in rice, vegetables because it was badly affected in the areas of Central Luzon so the market price may increase from 15 to 20 percent," he said.

"The palay that we are about to harvest was flattened by the strong wind. The rain was not strong, but strong wind hit Nueva Ecija and it flattened the rice fields in the municipalities of San Isidro, Jaen, San Antonio, Gapan, General Tinio and Zaragoza," he added.

As of Thursday, the Department of Agriculture has recorded a total of P2.02 billion worth of damage due to ''Karding'', of which P1.66 billion worth of rice crops were affected.

Other crops affected include corn worth P43.6 million, high value crops worth P271.6 million, P43 million worth of fisheries and P7.9 million worth of livestocks and poultry.

Panganiban also noted that although the country still has enough supply of rice until the end of the year, he noted the importance of maintaining the two months buffer stocks to ensure enough supply of rice for next year.

"Based on our assessment we are not gonna have a huge rice shortage next year. We need to have a buffer stock of 60 days so that we will be able to provide the needs of our people in case of a possible shortfall," he said.

"We are maintaining the 60 days buffer stock so that we can make sure that we will have enough supply of rice for our people in the next year," he added. Robina Asido/DMS