International donors commit $3.9 million to help NCR, South Luzon farmers

MANILA, Philippines - Donor-countries and international organizations have committed $3.9 million worth of crop production assistance for farmers in the National Capital Region and Southern Tagalog devastated by tropical storm Ondoy.

This was revealed over the weekend by the Department of Agriculture (DA) following a closed door Philippine Flash Appeal pledging session held last Wednesday at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City.

The DA is working with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a follow-up flash appeal for additional farm aid, this time for the massive rehabilitation of busted irrigation facilities in time for the dry or summer crop season.

Formally launched Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, the Philippine Flash Appeal is sponsored by the UN and its various agencies to harness support, in cash and in kind, from the international community for one million disaster victims of the two most recent howlers that hit Metro Manila, five Luzon regions and the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Initially focused on such relief and rehabilitation support as water, sanitation and other health projects for disaster victims in Metro Manila and Region IV-A (the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon or Calabarzon corridor), the donors agreed to extend $3.9 million in farm assistance after Yap stressed the urgency of providing seeds and other inputs to affected farmers whose standing crops were completely wiped out by the typhoon.

Yap said the follow-up emergency flash appeal for irrigation infrastructure came about during his meeting with FAO representative Kazuyuki Tsurumi on the sidelines of the pledging session.

It was agreed that there is a need for international assistance to fix the damaged irrigation facilities in time for the summer harvest.

Initial typhoon damage estimates on irrigation facilities was placed at over P894 million for Ondoy.

Yap said the repair of irrigation facilities has to be fast-tracked considering the earlier forecast by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) of an El Niño occurence in the months ahead.

“A dry spell will severely hurt next year’s harvests, so unless we do something to repair the damaged irrigation systems, reservoirs and other water-impounding facilities, we will not be able to boost yields and compensate for the crop-production losses spawned by the two typhoons,” Yap warned.

“With this forecast of a prolonged dry spell, we really have to fix our damaged irrigation in fast mode so we can somehow offset the adverse effect of this weather disturbance by ensuring the supply of water to most of our palay fields in the dry or summer crop,” Yap said.

“We can only do this if we will be able to get international support to augment the resources that the National Government can allocate for a massive irrigation repair and rehabilitation program.”

Aside from Tsurumi, the other UN officials present during the Sofitel Hotel event included UN resident coordinator Dr. Jacqueline Badcock and executive director Ann Veneman of the UN Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF).

From the Philippine side, the other Cabinet officials present during the pledging session were Secretaries Gilbert Teodoro of Defense, Francisco Duque of Health, and Esperanza Cabral of Social Welfare and Development.