“Women have additional challenges with respect to their livelihood and daily household responsibilities…. Moreso, working women have a hard time going back to work whenever disaster strikes and their homes were destroyed,” said Jade Marquez, the Right to Resilience Regional Program manager at international nonprofitLast December 2021, Typhoon Odette ravaged Palawan, leaving widespread damage to its agriculture industry amounting to P3 billion .
“Before, the weather was predictable. When it’s wet season, it’s raining; when it’s dry season, it’s sunny. For each season, we’re prepared. We’re all forced to face this new reality. Our income dropped, especially in Odette’s aftermath,” Montaño said.“We’re supposed to earn P15,000 from [those] seaweeds but it’s all gone, except for the ropes,” Gimotea recounted with teary eyes.
In Palawan’s banana capital town of Aborlan, farmers like Asuple lamented how Odette flattened their plantations. IID is common among seaweeds found in the Philippines, particularly in Palawan, a top seaweed-producing province. IID-infected seaweed tissues, in turn, whiten, disintegrate, and decay, reducing farmers’ carrageenan yield.
Meanwhile, banana farmers complain about the soil-borne fungus Fusarium wilt, which causes the stunting of banana plant and yellowing of its leaves. “It’s so hard because you’re forced to be frugal with your spending. Sometimes, we’re not able to buy food as we’re cash-strapped,” said Gimotea. “Unlike nowadays, I can have my children indulging in food when I started tying seaweed propagules a decade ago,” said Daguia, who once earned P13,000 every after harvest.
SEAFDEC, meanwhile, recommends the relocation of seaweed sites from shallow to deeper waters, “wherein environmental conditions are moderate and stable,” allowing seaweeds to “cope up with the challenges of climate change effects,” said Faisan.the use of seaweed tissue culture, which is free from disease and pest and available whole year round for farmers.
On average, she harvests 300 banana pieces, giving her family a weekly income of P90 . It could double if she would sell it at the town proper, but the roundtrip tricycle fare would cost her the same amount as her earnings.As a non-member of the government’s cash assistance 4Ps program, Asuple’s family makes do with their meager income, which is just enough to buy one kilo of rice and salt so they can subsist on porridge for a few days and then return to eating boiled bananas when it runs out.
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