More than a hundred farmers and disaster survivors from Eastern Visayas provinces on Tuesday demanded Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol apply emergency rehabilitation measures to revive the agriculture and fisheries sector in the region devastated by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” and subsequent calamities.
Groups from the region were on the third day of their Caravan against Hunger and Militarization in the National Capital Region as they try to raise awareness on their current situation.
“The previous Aquino administration neglected us and plundered disaster funds and resources intended for calamity victims. Now, we are challenging the Duterte presidency to respond to our most urgent demands,” said Nestor Lebico, spokesperson of Samahan han Gudti nga Parag-uma ha Sinirangan Bisayas, the regional chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
Eastern Samar, Western Samar and Northern Samar provinces are among the Department of Agriculture’s priority areas.
The agency, under Piñol, has earmarked billions of funds for increased food production and poverty alleviation in these provinces under the Strategic Areas for Agriculture Development program, but government aid and rehabilitation efforts are not reaching the intended beneficiaries, the groups said.
Farmers have registered 85 percent to 90 percent production losses due to successive typhoons, drought and infestations affecting coconut, abaca and palay, SAGUPA-SB added.
Lebico said farmers in rural Samar and Leyte continue to experience worsening hunger, three years after “Yolanda” struck. Based on conservative government estimates, hunger incidence in the region is at 45 percent.
“The Duterte government cannot turn a blind eye to the grim realities in Region 8. Before Yolanda, Eastern Visayas is the poorest region with the highest hunger incidence. The situation took a sharp turn from bad to worse,” the activist said.
“Now, more than 90 percent of the 4.1 million people in the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Biliran are poor and hungry. Recovery is impossible as long as the agriculture and fisheries sector in the region remain neglected,” the peasant leader said, adding that the agricultural sector accounts for almost 45 percent of the region’s employment.
“We have no lands to till, no government support and services for farmers and fisherfolk. Coconut farmlands are infested with coconut scale insect or cocolisap. Abaca is infested with bunchy-top virus. People who are trying to start a new life in the hinterlands cannot live in peace because of intense military operations. It’s like we are stuck between purgatory and hell,” Lebico said.
Coconut farming is the main livelihood in Eastern Visayas. In 2014, Yolanda destroyed all but 700,000 of the 12 million coconut trees in the region, damaging 80 percent of 1.1 million metric tons of crops.
“Whatever was left of the coconut farmlands in Samar and Leyte was infested with cocolisap,” Lebico said. “Coconut production in the region has fallen from 2,000 nuts per hectare to only 200 to 500 nuts,” he added.
First discovered in 2010, the cocolisap has infested large areas of coco farmlands in Luzon and Mindanao by 2014 and last year, the pests started to infest Eastern Visayas.
According to IBON, the value of coconut production in Eastern Visayas has steadily dropped from Php6.4 billion in 2013, to Php4.7 billion in 2014, and Php4.6 billion in 2015. The value of palay production in the region has also declined by 2.7 percent in the same year.
Decline in fisheries is also evident, with Eastern Visayas posting a 22.7% decline in the value of aquaculture fisheries production in 2015.
KMP secretary general Antonio Flores said the government and the DA must heed the demands of Eastern Visayas farmers for the distribution of free organic farm inputs, seedlings distribution, technical assistance and equipment to farmers and fisherfolk.
The agency should also carry out a two-year moratorium on payment of irrigation fees and the “genuine rehabilitation and development of the agriculture sector and fisheries sector in the region,” Flores added.