The Philippines is still swerving from havoc caused by three successive typhoons – Egay, Falcon and Goring – with officials aware of reduced farm fertility, not to exclude the emotional trauma families are going through.
While typhoons increase the supply of water for agriculture as they usher in rain, the three recent ones did more harm than good, underlying the axiom that this country of 114 million people is among the hardest hit by natural disasters, particularly typhoons, floods and droughts.
We have seen how these typhoons and flash floods – in the Central Plains north of Manila, the known rice bowl of the country, and in Cagayan Valley and the Ilocos farther north – have destroyed infrastructure and agricultural crops.
Beyond doubt, while officials are still going through preliminary estimates of damage to agriculture crops as well as roads and bridges, the unwelcome floods diminished farm production by damaging farm inputs and destroying establishment and infrastructure.
Studies have shown these natural disasters have negative economic and environmental impacts on the affected areas and the people who live there, pointing the blame yet once more on the slow ability of authorities to address the challenge of climate change.
Studies also suggested the agriculture and natural resources sectors are highly ill-protected because they are continuously exposed to natural disasters and their unwelcome consequences.
For an economy largely dependent on agriculture and its natural resources and environment, the data and information as well as overall knowledge gained from such study may prove useful in developing strategies to address the ill-effects of natural disasters.
While Super Typhoons Egay and Falcon may have subsided from their paths of destruction in the Philippines, initial data suggest they affected more than three million people, including scores dead and injured, displaced more than 285,000 and placed nearly 52,000 in evacuation centers and almost 234,000 outside evacuation centers.
Egay and Falcon had caused destructive flooding, landslides, and tornadoes in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon, with damage to the agriculture sector initially placed at P1.53 billion, affecting nearly 100,000 farmers and fisher folk in eight regions.
Then the latest, typhoon Goring, brought heavy rainfall and what weathermen described as “severe winds” as it pounded the country’s northeast, affecting more than 115,200 people.
In its bulletin, the DA said at least 66.075 metric tons of produce were lost, covering 110,086 hectares of agricultural areas in the Cordilleras, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas and Caraga.
The Office of Civil Defense earlier said the affected families are those displaced and those not needing transfer or removal from their residence.
The OCD said it is continuing to coordinate response operations with its regional counterparts and other government agencies to ensure assistance in typhoon-affected areas.
The OCD has activated emergency preparedness and response protocols in the different regions.