DOLORES, Eastern Samar—A group of farmers from the islands of Cebu, Bohol and Negros came together in the spirit of balaynihan, an act of good will and neighborly love, to aid fellow farmers by collecting ecologically farmed rice seeds, root crops, vegetable seeds and organic fertilizers.
The seeds were presented presented to 125 of the most affected farmers in Dolores town.
Typhoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit) made a direct hit on Dolores on December 6, damaging much of the region’s farmland and crops, before crawling across the rest of the country. Nationally, crop losses have been estimated at P1.9 billion ($42.5 million).
“This has been a terrific initiative and different to a government response, which can often be mistaken by farmers as a dole out which can mean they do not give much importance to it,” Dolores Mayor Emiliana Villacarillo said. “When it’s a farmer-to-farmer exchange, the farmers that offer the seeds are people who have nothing to gain from it, but are doing it out of goodwill, out of a sense of community. It also means farmers on the receiving end could personally offer their thanks.”
The mayor added: “It also changes the perspective of farmers by showing their capacity to help others in need and that our farmers have the solutions at hand. For this, we thank Greenpeace for initiating this approach. Farmers who are experiencing difficulties can now spring back and recoup their losses.”
An estimated 4 tons of rice seeds from Negros, 1 ton of farmer-developed rice seeds from Bohol and diverse vegetables seeds (for 1,000 families) from Cebu were delivered to Dolores. All the seeds were organically grown. The seeds will be enough to replant about 125 hectares of rice farmland. Seeds earlier provided by the Department of Agriculture had been planted prior to the typhoon’s landfall. Farmers in Dolores did not have any other seeds to replant damaged fields. As part of the seed transfer, experts and practitioners of organic farming have also traveled to Dolores to begin training farmers on how to grow healthy, climate-resilient crops using ecological agriculture practices.
Greenpeace and partner organizations responded immediately to the seed-recovery mission by arranging and facilitating the skills-sharing and seed delivery, organizing the logistics and acting as a contact point between the farmers in Cebu, Bohol and Negros and the impacted farmers and authorities in Dolores. “As our climate changes, there is an increasingly urgent need for Filipino farmers to adopt more resilient farming practices. This seed delivery is a good step; it not only helps get farmers in Dolores back on their feet, but it also reinforces the need to strengthen farmer-to-farmer seed exchanges and the setting up of community seed banks and diverse seed stocks,” said Wilhelmina Pelegrina, ecological agriculture campaigner for Greenpeace International. “Farmers are still the major source of seeds, especially rice, so a reliable system for seed exchanges will prove crucial in building resilience to future climate shocks.”
Resilience can also be improved by the adoption of ecological agriculture, which uses the diversity of nature to help the soil retain more water and stay healthier to provide nutrients to crops in times of extreme weather. Crop diversity also enables farms to withstand different stresses, including climate shocks such as typhoons.
Image credits: Charlie Saceda/Greenpeace