The Need for Premium Agri-fisheries for the Disaster-affected Areas of Leyte, Philippines

Dora Fe H. Bernardo, Oscar B. Zamora, and Lucille Elna P. de Guzman

Abstract

Eastern Visayas was one of the areas devastated by the super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) that ravaged the central Philippines in November 2013. As part of its immediate response, the Department of Agriculture (DA), in partnership with key stakeholders, distributed cash subsidies and farm/fishing materials and equipment. To help coconut growers, DA-Philippine Coconut Authority distributed seedlings of high-yielding coconut varieties for replanting. As for fishermen, the DA-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources initiated the construction of bancas, provision of fishing gear and sea-weed farm implements, and the distribution of fingerlings. Moreover, the Leyte Provincial Government in collaboration with the key stakeholders established a post-Typhoon Yolanda Nutrition-Sensitive Agri-fisheries program (NSAP) to address health and nutrition problems. The NSAP was established to improve food supply system through sustainable crop production. It promoted planting of multiple vegetables crops in home, school and community gardens. Suggested species were classified as i) early-maturing (tomato, pechay, and sweet corn), ii) semi-annual vegetables (winged bean, bitter gourd, cucumber and ginger); iii) annuals (lima bean, pigeon pea, upland kangkong, and alugbati); iv) permanent crops (papaya, pineapple, sugarcane, yam beans, malunggay, banana, and citrus). Through the promotion of small-scale diversified cropping, food sustainability and household resiliency were attained not only in Leyte but also in all affected areas.