Taiwan's agriculture suffered a loss of about 12.2 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$370.5 million) in Typhoon Morakot as of Sunday morning, said the island's agriculture department.

The loss included crops with a worth of 4 billion New Taiwan dollars, livestock and poultry 1.39 billion, aquatic produce 4.13 billion and forest 77.42 million, the department said in a statement.

In addition, damages to farming, livestock and fishing infrastructure amounted to 2.64 billion NT dollars, the statement said.

In the worst typhoon in the past 50 years, 124 people were confirmed dead and 56 were missing as of Saturday evening.

Taiwan has asked the mainland for help. In a letter to the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) on Saturday, the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) hoped the mainland could provide manual and automatic sterilizing machines, blankets and sleeping bags.

ARATS officials have pledged to send those materials to Taiwan as soon as possible.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2009)