Successive typhoons have battered the Philippines, devastating rice fields and deepening the country's rice shortage.
In less than a month, six typhoons hit the country, leaving catastrophic devastation. In early October, Tropical Storm Trami and Typhoon Kong-rey triggered deadly floods and landslides, claiming 162 lives. Typhoons Yinxing, Toraji and Usagi followed, wreaking havoc across provinces. And last Sunday, millions were forced to evacuate as Super Typhoon Man-yi unleashed powerful winds and massive tidal surges, compounding the crisis for already struggling communities.
Aside from the damage to infrastructure, the agriculture sector suffered the most.
In the town of Famy in Laguna province, which is three hours away from capital Manila, farmers have lost their livelihood just days away from harvest when a string of powerful typhoons hit, leaving crops waterlogged and in many areas completely destroyed. They now face a devastating loss not only of their harvest but also their income, casting a shadow of uncertainty in the months ahead.
Ericson Matalog was set to harvest around 200 sacks of rice from his two-hectare field. But heavy rains and strong winds from recent typhoons left his farmland flooded, destroying his crop.
"I can't salvage anything here because the grains have rotted and it pains me. I can't even use them as animal feed because all of them are rotten," said the rice farmer.
The Philippine government has pledged support for affected farmers. The agriculture department is rolling out financial aid. The extensive damage to farmland has deepened the country's rice shortage.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Friday that the government will have to import around 4.5 million tons of rice to suffice the needs of Filipinos.
The recent series of typhoons have intensified pressure on the Philippines' representatives at the UN Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan (COP29 Baku). Environmentalists and civil society groups at COP29 are calling for an immediate release and expansion of the Loss and Damage Fund to support vulnerable nations grappling with the climate emergency.
"We need money and we are owed that money because those guys out there from developed countries, they polluted the planet and they are doing everything they can to not give us the money that we need, not to survive these next couple of weeks or these past few weeks rather but to survive whatever comes next," said John Leo Algo, national coordinator of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas, a civil society network for climate action.
On the sidelines of the climate conference, the Philippines formalized its hosting of the board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage by signing the Host Country Agreement. The environment ministry said the country could serve as a test case for the fund, which aids communities in recovering from the climate crisis.
Typhoons cause damage to agriculture, deepens Philippine's rice shortage
