The heavy rains since January 20 have led to nearly one million Brunei dollars' (667,000 US) worth of damage to crops and livestock, the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources reported on its website.

It said more than 100 vegetable farms were submerged and thousands of chicks died when a chicken farm was inundated.

"The floods to some extent will affect the revenues of the agricultural sector for the year 2009," it said.

According to a World Trade Organisation (WTO) report last year, agriculture accounted for less than one percent of Brunei's nominal gross domestic product in 2006.

The country imports more than 80 percent of its food, the WTO said.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah last year called on the oil and gas-producing nation, one of Southeast Asia's wealthiest, to step up agricultural production and make food security a priority.

The recent floods, among the sultanate's worst ever, stranded thousands of residents and left two dead, newspaper reports said.

Affected farms will receive free seeds and fertiliser, the industry ministry said.

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