MANILA (UCAN): Farmers in the Philippines appealed for aid after their crops were destroyed by Severe Tropical Storm Nalgae [Paeng] which made landfall in the southern Philippines on October 29.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council [NDRRMC] reported the tropical storm affected over 24,000 farmers, mostly rice farmers, in the Philippines.
“We received the report from our regional offices. We have a total of 435.4 million pesos [$59.9 million] worth of damage in our agriculture sector mostly sustained by rice farmers,” NDRRMC spokesperson, Raffy Alejandro, told reporters on November 2.
The amount covered more than 16,200 hectares of agricultural land throughout the Philippines that should have been ready for harvest by November or December.
“What pains our farmers is that this rice will be ready this month or next. Our farmers are looking forward to converting their harvest into money because the Christmas season is near, as well as to pay the school fees of their children. Now, it’s all gone,” Alejandro added.
Several farmer-labour groups have called for help from Church groups and private corporations.
“We are asking for help … because we do not know how we can recover from this. Many of our farmers had borrowed capital to plant rice. Please help us because our children need food on the table and to study,” Aklan farmer, Joey Ugto, said.
Ugto is among many farmers who lost 1.6 metric tons of crops worth 33.5 million pesos [$4.6 million] after flash floods hit 171 villages in the Visayas region.
We are asking for help … because we do not know how we can recover from this. Many of our farmers had borrowed capital to plant rice. Please help us because our children need food on the table and to study,
Joey Ugto
Farmers from southern Luzon have also called on the president, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., to ask Congress to pass a bill that would allow farmers to get subsidised fertilisers and gasoline vouchers for the production and transportation of rice.
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“Our common expense in rice planting includes fertilisers and, of course, the gasoline that we use in our machines to plant and to harvest rice. If the government will give us assistance in these areas, it will be a great source of consolation,” said Dado Dueda, a farmer from Sorsogon.
Vegetable farmers in northern provinces have also pleaded for help after landslides buried their crops along the mountain slopes in Baguio City in the Cordillera region.
“I think we will see an increase in the price of vegetables because of the typhoon, especially now that Christmas is coming. Prices will surely go up not just because of the demand but also because of the lack of supply due to damaged vegetable farms here in the north,” farmer from Baguio, Pedro Longiab, said.
Marcos, Jr. announced he would not declare a national state of calamity because the damage caused by the typhoon was “highly localised” and “not as extensive.”
However, farmers said they needed state support regardless of whether or not the government declared a national state of calamity.
“National or not, it really doesn’t matter to us here. We need help otherwise we will be buried in debt,” Longiab said.
Meanwhile, a Catholic group engaged in micro-financing called Business Traders for Christ, pledged to lend capital to farmers at a minimum interest rate.
“Before, we only lent money to handicraft businessmen and local entrepreneurs. Now, because of the typhoon, we are lending a hand to farmers,” the group’s president, Francis Gusman, said.
The group’s interest rate would not be higher than three percent interest annually, according to Gusman.
“Many of our farmers are mired in debt because of their interest payments. In our group, we will make sure that the interest is low and we can even adjust the payment depending on the harvest. So, there is flexibility here,” he added.
