Where Two Typhoons Struck - Philippines
Hunger Awaits Filipino Families
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan
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Manila, Philippines (October 5, 2009) – The Philippines will face nationwide hunger starting the end of this year and will worsen by the first quarter of 2010 because of the destruction wrought by typhoons Ketsana (Ondoy) and Parma (Pepeng), the United Nations warned.
Paolo Mattei, UN World Food Program (WFP) regional officer for Asia said the country should prepare for possible widespread shortage of food after inspection was carried out. Two powerful typhoons in four regions of the country ripped through the Philippines destroying thousands of hectares of rice and corn.
Right after the warning, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered that rice will be imported to meet the impending food shortage even though rice importation in the past has often resulted in corruption like kickbacks and smuggling.
Billions Worth of Food Destroyed
Mr. Mattei traveled with agriculture secretary Arthur Yap who said almost 150 million dollars worth of rice and corn were destroyed in the Cagayan and Ilocos regions alone.
The Cagayan region, made up of the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Batanes, is the country’s largest corn and rice grower. The expected harvest for this quarter, Yap said, is all but gone.
An estimated 400,000 metric tons of rice and 300,000 metric tons of corn have just been lost, Yap said.
In the province of Isabela, the nation’s largest corn grower, all of the corn planted was wiped out by Typhoon Parma, he added.
Agriculture infrastructure worth more than 30 million dollars were destroyed as well, and the government is hard pressed to come out with funds to mitigate the impact of such losses, Yap said.
Besides the Cagayan and Ilocos Regions, typhoon Parma wrecked havoc in the Cordillera, Central, Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions, displacing 170,000 families more besides the 2 two million families already made homeless earlier by Typhoon Ketsana.
Diseases on the Rise
The agony and personal loss of the thousands of Filipino families made victims by the storms are being made more painful by the fact that not only are many hungry, without enough clothes and belongings, but also sick and without enough medicine.
Red Cross Chief Richard Gordon said thousands are sick of colds, diarrhea, influenza, injuries caused by the evacuation, and fungal diseases caused by long exposure to the dirty water when people escaped the floods.
“There is medicine, but it is not enough, we need more and we are pleading to the international community to come to our aid”, he said.
Already, Canada, the US, European Union, Australia, Japan have poured millions of dollars to assist the impoverished country run by leaders perceived by many citizens as corrupt.
Majority of those sick are women, elderly and children and their immunity system is gradually deteriorating, he added.
The spread of diseases has been rapid, he noted, because thousands are crammed in limited spaces of evacuation centers, and there is widespread problem of water and sanitation.
“Toilets are limited, as well as water for washing and bathing”, 56 years old Inciang Denas said, who took a bath only once while many have not taken one yet.
“There are no separate toilet for women and toiletries like tissue paper, hand disinfectant and soap are nowhere to be found”, cried, Nancy Hista,
In many places, the stench of dead animals still lingers as well as the thousands of tons of waste and garbage that remains uncollected.
Hundreds of Flooded Villages Still Unreached
As the government struggles to cope with the gigantic task of evacuating, feeding, treating and rehabilitating towns that have been flooded, hundreds of villages in 26 provinces are still submerged, and thousands of isolated people have yet to receive relief and supplies.
According to Red Cross disaster expert Rene Sarmiento, many of these villages have not been reached basically because of lack of appropriate transportation like motorized rubber boats.
“Rubber boats cannot travel against flood waters with strong undercurrents, we need pump boats or rubber boats with motors”, he said.
Many of the rescue efforts done by boats were done by people with private yachts and personal speedboats.
Many villages also have become incommunicable because power and communication lines were cut, Sarmiento said.
“We lost contact with many local leaders and residents”, he said.
Blame Game
The disaster that struck the Philippines has made many people angry, especially the victims who lament how the government has been caught unprepared by the calamities.
The government, despite all its excuses, will be remembered for its corrupt and wasteful spending while no preparation has seriously ever been done to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.
However, it is the people, especially the rich and the government planners, who should share the blame. The country’s forests have been cut to almost just 20 per cent now from its original 75 million hectares of forests by the few elite rich families, many of whom are politicians. This has contributed to global warming.
Urban planners, likewise, have not looked into the probable environmental impacts of their plans that have been used to construct roads, housing, drainages, canals and sewer lines.
Garbage generated, especially by the many poor, find their way to rivers and canals and the government does not have an effective solid waste management programme
However, If at all, the two typhoons have taught the Filipinos a thing or two about caring for the environment. This time, hopefully, the Filipinos will learn after their bitter lesson.
Michael A. Bengwayan is a Journalist and environmental specialist based on Manila. He can be contacted through youth_campaign@iolteam.com.
2 comments:
Just wanted to flag an article published today about the World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania written for the Worldwatch Institute's blog called Nourishing the Planet [http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/].
Breeding Vegetables With Farmers in Mind
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/breeding-vegetables-with-farmers-in-mind/
As hunger and drought spread across Africa , there’s a huge focus on increasing yields of staple crops, such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice. And while these crops are important for food security, providing much needed calories, they don’t provide much protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, other important vitamins and micronutrients—or much taste. “None of the staple crops,” says Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, the World Vegetable Center’s Regional Director for Africa, “would be palatable without vegetables.” And vegetables, he says, “are less risk prone” than staple crops that stay in the field for longer periods of time. Because vegetables typically have a shorter growing time, they can maximize often scarce water supplies and soil nutrients better than crops such as maize which need a lot of water and fertilizer.
Unfortunately no country in Africa, according to Dr. Tenkouano, has a big focus on vegetable production. But that’s where the Center steps in. Since the 1990s, the Center (which is a part of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center based in Taiwan) has been working in Africa to breed cultivars that best suit farmers’ needs.
Despite the focus on staple crops, vegetable production generates more income on and off the farm than most other agricultural enterprises, according to the Center’s website. And unlike staple crops, vegetable production is something that benefits urban and rural farmers alike (See our posts on urban farmers in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya).
In addition, vegetable production is the most sustainable and affordable way of alleviating micronutrient deficiencies among the poor. Often referred to as “hidden hunger,” micronutrient deficiencies—including lack of Vitamin A, iron, and iodine—affect some 1 billion people worldwide. They lead to poor mental and physical development, especially among children, and cause poor performance in work and in school, further crippling communities already facing poverty and other health problems.
But by listening to farmers and including them in breeding research, the Center is helping to alleviate these problems. Watch for more blogs about our visit to the World Vegetable Center and their efforts to raise nutrition and income in Africa.
--- You can also follow Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack's travels on our personal blog Border Jumpers [www.borderjumpers.org]
2nd in our series of articles published today about the World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania written for the Worldwatch Institute's blog called Nourishing the Planet [http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/].
Listening to Farmers
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/
The World Vegetable Center is focusing on “building a sustainable seed system in sub-Saharan Africa.” What does that mean? According to Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, Director of the Regional Center for Africa, it requires “bringing farmers voices into the choices of materials they are using.”
The Center does this not only by breeding a variety of vegetables with different traits—including resistance to disease and longer shelf life—but also by bringing farmers from all over eastern, western, and southern Africa to the Regional Center in Arusha, Tanzania, to find out what exactly those farmers need in the field and at market. Mr. Babel Isack, a tomato farmer from Tanzania, was at the Center when I visited, advising staff about which tomato varieties would be best suited for his particular needs—including varieties that depend on fewer chemical sprays and have a longer shelf life.
The Center works with farmers not only to grow vegetables, but also to process and cook them. Often, vegetables are cooked for so long that they lose most of their nutrients. To solve that problem, Dr. Mel Oluoch, a Liason Officer with the Center’s Vegetable Breeding and Seed System Program (VBSS), works with women to improve the nutritional value of cooked foods by helping them develop shorter cooking times. “Eating is believing,” says Dr. Oluoch, who adds that when people find out how much better the food tastes—and how much less fuel and time it takes to cook—they don’t need much convincing about the alternative methods.
Dr. Oluoch also trains both urban and rural farmers on seed production. In fact, one of the women farmers we met in Kibera slum in Nairobi had been trained at the Center and is selling seeds to rural farmers, increasing her income. “The sustainability of seed,” says Dr. Oluoch, “is not yet there in Africa.” In other words, farmers don’t have access to a reliable source of seed for indigenous vegetables, such as amaranth, spider plant, cowpea, okra, moringa, and other crops. As a result, the Center is working—partly with CNFA, an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) grantee—to link farmers to input or “agro-” dealers who can help ensure a steady supply of seed.
In addition, the Center is providing how-to brochures to farmers in Swahili and other languages to help them better understand how to grow vegetables in different regions.
Stay tuned for more about our visit to the World Vegetable Center later this week.
--- You can also follow Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack's travels on our personal blog Border Jumpers [www.borderjumpers.org]
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