850.000 bønder, de fleste af dem på småbrug, der dyrker ris, har fået ødelagt huse og marker, og mangler alt fra redskaber til såsæd efter tyfonens hærgen i det store fjernøstlige ø-rige – men mad kan ingen filippinere undvære, når risen bliver knap eller helt slipper op.
ALANG-ALANG, 29 November 2013 (IRIN): Typhoon Haiyan swept across an area roughly the size of Portugal in the central Philippines that yields two rice harvests a year, respectively in March-April and October-November, and provides upwards (mindst) of a quarter of the country’s total rice production, a staple part of the Philippine diet (grundbestanddel i kosten).
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says 77 percent of farmers have lost their main source of income, while the Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 850.000 people working in the agriculture sector, many of them subsistence rice farmers, have been affected.
Armando Alimangohan (51) saw his 1,3 hectare paddy field (rismark) destroyed on 8 November and knows all too well the impact of the typhoon on his livelihood (levefod).
“We are completely dependent on farming. We have lost everything and now don’t even have seeds (såsæd) to plant,” he said outside his home in Alang-Alang, a largely agricultural community of more than 45.000 residents in the central Philippine province of Leyte.
“Devastating”
“The impact was devastating,” Antonio Gerundio, regional executive director for Region VIII, one of three regions impacted by the storm, told IRIN in the badly affected city of Tacloban.
The region has six provinces – Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Northern Samar, Samar and Eastern Samar – where more than 45.000 rice farmers have been affected.
“Many of the farmers have been wiped out. Not only have they lost their homes and their rice crops, but also their tools (redskaber) and equipment, as well as what rice they might have had in storage (på lager) from the previous harvest,” Gerundio said.
Region VIII produces almost one million metric tonnes of rice annually, making it one of the top five producing regions in the country, with each farmer having a field of 0,8 hectares on average.
Upwards of 95 percent of the region’s 38.400 hectares of standing rice crops were also destroyed, enough to produce 170.000 metric tonnes of rice.
“We provide 6 to 8 percent of the country’s rice supply,” Gerundio said, adding: “Relief and rehabilitation for these farmers will be critical.”
This is echoed by the Multi-Cluster/Sector Rapid Assessment (MIRA), a cooperative effort involving more than 40 agencies across nine provinces, which was released on 28 November.
Time running out
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http://www.irinnews.org/report/99232/typhoon-affected-rice-farmers-need-seeds
