Typhoon Haiyan sends coconut farming 'back to year zero' | Mark Tran | Global development | The GuardianTyphoon Haiyan sends coconut farming 'back to year zero' | Mark Tran | Global development | The Guardian










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Humanitarian response



Typhoon Haiyan sends coconut farming 'back to year zero'









The Philippine storm destroyed 33m coconut trees as well fishing on Leyte island, leaving many people without a livelihood














Coconut farmer in Tacloban, Philippines, Gomercino Sayong. Photograph: Mark Tran for The Guardian






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Mark Tran






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Thursday 6 February 2014 08.24 EST







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In the space of three hours when Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November, Gomercino Sayong, a coconut farmer for the past 29 years, lost all his 1,200 trees.
The hillside behind his house in the village of Camote, half an hour from Tacloban, the provincial capital of Leyte island, tells the stark story. Thousand of coconut trees stand bare, shredded of any green fronds.
"For coconut farmers, it's back to year zero," he said, standing in his damaged home in the blazing sun. A fallen coconut tree lies on its side nearby, while a small building, which served as the community centre and where people huddled for shelter during the storm, has been reduced to a shell.
Typhoon Haiyan has devastated two of the main sources of livelihood in Leyte: coconut and fisheries. More than 30,000 boats were destroyed by the typhoon's storm surge, leaving fishermen and women without income. The majority of those reliant on the sea and mangroves to earn a living also face possible relocation far from the sea because of a government law banning the building of residential homes within 40 metres of the coast.
The rule is widely ignored in Tacloban, as people with nowhere else to go have simply returned to rebuild on the ruins of their former homes.
As for coconuts, more than 33m trees were destroyed by 195mph winds. Newly planted trees will take six to eight years to grow back. It's a huge blow to the more than 1 million families living in the typhoon areas who were once part of the thriving coconut industry.
The first priority is to clear the dead trees, a daunting task as the volume is greater than the debris left by the typhoon. Cutting down the trees poses its own challenge. The Philippine Coconut Authority does not want to hand out saws casually as it could encourage illegal logging. The plan is to regulate the cutting down of trees by controlling the number of chainsaws through registration.
The PCA wants the cutting to be done mostly by existing chainsaw operators round the island. Then farmers will be paid to move the trees. These payments should provide an immediate source of income for coconut farmers.
Oxfam says farmers not only face years of lost income but are also in a race against time to clear the fallen trees before they rot, in three months' time. Sawdust and rotting wood is a breeding ground for pests, particularly the rhinoceros beetle, which will infest the few trees that remain standing unless the land is cleared for replanting. Another complication is how to preserve the lumber from termites and moisture.
The urgent work is being further jeopardised by unequal land ownership laws, according to Oxfam, which require the poorest farm workers to seek permission from landowners before clearing can begin.
In the longer term, the UN Development Programme has drawn up plans for an ambitious recasting of coconut farming that could make it more sustainable.
Patricio Augustin, manager of livelihoods strategy with the NGO World Vision, says the plans involve the introduction of other crops – intercropping – to provide variety and better sources of income. The idea is to have wider spacing between the trees, so fruit trees would be planted in between, and there would also be room for cereals and legumes. It would be a move to a more sustainable agriculture, including minimum disturbance of the soil through minimum tillage.
Women would be encouraged to raise small animals such as Pekin duck, a variety from the Czech Republic that is twice as big as native birds and a more prolific egg layer.
But all this takes money. "The development of this at scale will involve millions of dollars," says Adam Marlatt, who leads the UNDP's "coconut cluster", which includes Oxfam.
However, the NGO has expressed concern at the lack of government support for the UNDP's initiative. It says latest figures show no funding has been allocated to the UN for coconut workers and fisherpeople, and the Philippines government has been slow to deliver the agricultural and reconstruction support it has promised. Some 60% of small-scale coconut farmers lived in poverty before the typhoon hit and are now surviving on food aid or cash support.
Sayong, who has eight children, wants to resume coconut farming, but is still waiting for help. "People have been saying there will be help, but so far it hasn't come."



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Typhoon Haiyan




Natural disasters and extreme weather




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