The Philippines has lost up to US$219 billion in agricultural damages from typhoons, floods and droughts from 2000 to 2010, climate scientists said in a recent report.
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Typhoons are one of the biggest threats to agriculture in the country, with the most destructive cyclones like Rai alone destroying US$230 million worth of crops of mostly rice, found a study published by the Philippine Climate Change Assessment (PhilCCA).
Rice, the country’s staple crop, faces severe risks to national food security. Climate disasters have caused 84.2 per cent of rice losses because the crop is particularly sensitive to temperature fluctuations, typhoons and droughts, according to the study. It warned that rice production in Luzon, the country’s main rice-growing region, could decline by up to 60 per cent by 2050 if no interventions are put in place.
By mid-century, corn production in Luzon and coffee in the southern island group of Mindanao are also expected to decline, while banana crops are at risk from stronger winds and more frequent floods and cyclones, the report added.
Laura David, professor at the University of the Philippines and one of the report’s authors, cited insurance as a means to help protect the food security by stabilising farmers’ production and income when climate shocks hit.
“If our science shows that there is a need to change [how we protect food security], we can perhaps entice farmers to try transfer mechanisms like insurance. The risk for losing out is shared so it is not just them planting crops at the risk of climate change disasters,” David said in a press briefing on 12 February.
The department of agriculture has been pushing for an increase for the government’s crop insurance subsidy, aiming to provide coverage for up to 4.2 million agricultural workers, mosty rice farmers, by this year.
Currently, only 2.3 million farmers are insured under the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), with rice farmers accounting for 1.25 million of that total. The PCIC provides a maximum coverage of just P20,000 (US$346) per hectare for rice farmers, only a third of the estimated average production cost of P60,000 (US$3,500) per hectare.
The department has called expanded crop insurance a “strategic investment” in national food security. According to the department, faster recovery after disasters helps prevent prolonged drops in output and supply, and protects farmers falling into debt or abandoning farming altogether.
To improve the crop resilience, report’s authors also suggested developing new crop varieties that can tolerate drought, heat, flooding and salinity through plant breeding, genetic modification and other technologies, adding that technology and knowledge will play a key role in this effort.
In particular Geographic Information System (GIS) – a digital tool that collects, analyses and visualises location-based data – can help farmers understand local conditions, anticipate climate risks and make better decisions about planting and resource use.
Climate change is expected to reverse progress against child malnutrition in the Philippines, adding an estimated 40,000 more malnourished children by 2030 and 50,000 by 2050. Without climate risks, the number of malnourished children in the country would fall from about 3 million in 2010 to 2.7 million in 2030 and 2.15 million in 2050.
