Storms and floods are deeply hurting the sector.

Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia revealed just how damaging climate change is to the country, especially to the local farm sector.

Pernia said that agriculture employs 31.5 percent of the labor force, but suffers the most from various disasters.

“Environmental hazards aggravated by climate change continue to pose significant risks to agricultural output and growth,” Pernia said during a book launch.

In numbers, annual losses for the agricultural sector are pegged at a whopping P17.37 billion between 2000 and 2016, representing production losses and damage to farm equipment, and irrigation and road facilities.

“Climate change is only about to get worse with recent rapid increases in temperature. If we do nothing, this will impede our target of increasing agricultural productivity and ensuring food security,” he added.