The dailies report that a whooping P5.5 billion worth of facilities and crops were damaged by typhoon Ondoy. As this piece is being written, initial estimates put the damage of Typhoon Pepeng at P550 million for a total of P6 billion. But the damage could be much higher!

Major rice producing provinces hit

Among the provinces badly hit by the typhoons are major rice producing provinces such as Isabela, Cagayan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pangasinan, and Camarines Sur. These provinces, including the Ilocos provinces, Bulacan and Pampanga, constitute almost 40 percent of total rice production and 37 percent of total rice lands. The whole of Luzon, which is affected by the typhoons, generally supply 57 percent of total rice production. With the typhoon affecting as much as 70 percent of rice lands in Isabela, and probably the same percentage in the other major rice producing provinces, this means that practically more than half of Luzon's rice production could be affected by the typhoon. This percentage is hardly negligible as it has the potential of affecting the available supply of rice.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Arthur Yap is confident that rice stocks in the hands of the National Food Authority, commercial establishments and households can last two months. He also downplayed the damage at only 5.6 percent of the projected palay output for the fourth quarter. However, if the rice farmers in the affected provinces are not able to plant or replace the lost crops immediately, the country could experience another round of rice crisis as supply would dwindle with no foreseeable harvests in the near future.

While Mindanao and Visayas could have the potential of re-supplying Luzon, these provinces hardly produce rice surpluses. Moreover, the major rice producing areas in these regions are also flooded. Deputy House Speaker Simeon Datumanong even called on the House committees on public works and highways and environment and natural resources to conduct an inquiry over the perennial flooding in the region. In Mindanao, the major rice producing provinces are Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, and North Cotabato. Reports show that low-lying villages in Cotabato City, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao are still under water, days after typhoon Ondoy also brought rains to the flood-prone areas.

DA Secretary Yap estimated that almost a billion worth of irrigation facilities were also damaged by the typhoons. Given that 66 percent of irrigation facilities are also located in Luzon, and that rice farming is reliant on irrigation for maximizing production, the targeted production output will surely be decreased further and can only be restored after the damaged irrigation facilities are repaired. And since the typhoon season is hardly over and that more storms are looming over the horizon, the restoration of these irrigation facilities will take some time to complete.

Clearly, this calamity has imperiled the country's food security as well as the livelihood of the small agricultural producers. Needless to say, it is the small agricultural producers in the rice and corn sectors who are bearing the brunt of the disaster. The farmers are practically left to fend for themselves as they try to rebuild and recoup their losses. Keeping in mind that about 70 percent of farmers rely on traders and other informal lenders for their production capital, the calamity has surely sunk the bulk of rice farmers much deeper in debt, making it very difficult for them to repay the production loans and rebuild their lives.

Things are doubly difficult for the women in the rice and corn sectors, especially because the majority are farm workers.  These women farm workers have no access to formal social support because only less than 10% have access to the Social Security System.  Under normal conditions, these women spend from eight to eleven hours working. Almost half the work hours are spent for additional income-augmenting and food securing activities, such as foraging as well as livestock and vegetables raising. Farming households rely on these activities for securing daily food needs; yet, it is most likely that even these livelihood sources were damaged by the typhoons. 

Reliance on food imports

Already the DA is mulling to import rice to make up for the projected shortfall. (The country imports around 10 percent of its annual rice needs. This year alone, government has already imported 1.77 million metric tons of rice). And government is probably going to import soon because the remaining rice stocks are fast being depleted, especially, since a huge portion is being diverted to the ongoing relief efforts for the victims of the typhoons. But reliance on imports is hardly a long-term solution, especially for a country whose agriculture is continually being ravaged by typhoons.

If the government proceeds with its business as usual conduct (i.e. reliance on rice imports, snail paced delivery of services and corrupt practices), domestic rice production would never be able to cope with demand levels. Such behavior would also prolong the agony of the victims of the typhoons.

To hasten the recovery process, government needs to undertake policy reforms to assist the victims of the typhoon, particularly the small rice farmers.

Debt relief for farmers

A moratorium on loan payments or debt relief would go a long way towards helping the farmers get back on their feet. But since three-fourths of the farming population rely on informal sources of credit, this policy would only help those who obtained loans from banks or other formal lending institutions. After all, government cannot compel the traders or informal lenders to implement a moratorium on debt payments.

Entertaining short-term subsidies and pouring more resources

In order to help the bulk of the farming population, the government needs to intervene and provide farming capital in the form of subsidies for at least until the next cropping season or long-term loans. This entails that government relax borrowing requirements to enable the bulk of the small farmers (both male and female) to access production loans. Moreover, government would do well to tap the P4 billion Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) for this purpose. After all, the ACEF is supposed to be used to improve the competitiveness of agricultural producers. The bulk of the 2009 agricultural budget of P45 billion should be geared towards food security, livelihood and sustainability programs for farmers and farmworkers. It should also allot funds for farmworkers who were deprived of their sources of livelihoods.

Rehabilitation and Construction of Irrigation Facilities

Government also needs to mobilize resources to hasten the repair and rehabilitation of existing irrigation facilities as well as invest in the construction of new irrigation facilities. To hasten the process and cater to the needs of millions of farmers, government should pour and focus its resources in the construction of additional small water impounding projects and shallow tube-wells rather than on huge irrigation projects.

Oversight body to guard against fund misuse

What is worrisome is this government's propensity of diverting funds to other uses. The Arroyo administration has yet to account for the fertilizer scam and other financial scandals that is hounding it to this day. Even the typhoon mitigation fund that is being requested for inclusion in the DA budget by Secretary Yap is cause for concern because of the history of fund misuse. President Gloria Arroyo had eight years to modernize agriculture but she only spent those years implementing palliative measures. How then should we go about helping the farmers on a massive scale? We are proposing an independent oversight body that could oversee the disbursement of the funds and ensure that these benefit the intended beneficiaries.

Community-based, tri-partite approach

In addition, government should adopt a community-based, tri-partite approach to ensure that the funds or subsidies would go directly to the small producers. This means the involvement of the NGOs and other civil society groups as well as rural women's groups, the small farmers, and the government in the implementation of the project. At the very least, this approach ensures transparency. This community-based, tri-partite mechanism could tap existing associations as conduits or delivery vehicles for the production support funds, subsidies or loans. Such a mechanism would also remove the dependence of the farmers on the informal lenders or the traders for production capital. This measure would address the short-term problems of the small farmers. Lastly, this approach builds a sense of community ownership, which is a key ingredient in sustaining project implementation.

Sustainability

Speaking of sustainability, government needs to be weaned away from its reliance on food imports. It needs to genuinely pursue more sustainable methods of food production such as organic rice farming on a wider scale. It should also enforce measures to safeguard the environment. By encouraging more farmers to engage in sustainable rice farming methodologies, government would also be removing the small farmer's reliance on informal lending entities, as organic farming entails self-manufacture of organic fertilizers rather than purchases of expensive production inputs such as chemical fertilizers. It is also important to restore the farmers' control over farming resources, especially ensuring the women's traditional role in safekeeping the seeds.  Restoring farmer's control over seeds and farming technology also improves their self-reliance. More importantly, this approach would put the country on the road to self-sufficiency in food production. While these measures would not shield the farmers from future devastating typhoons, it could help them cope better the next time disaster strikes.