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In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) hit the Philippines, severely damaging and destroying many seaweed farming facilities and production, drastically reducing the income of coastal Philippine farmers who rely on seaweed as their main source of livelihood. The Philippines is one of the world’s largest seaweed producers, and initial assessments after the typhoon showed that aquaculture and seaweed production alone had caused losses of US$12.2 million. As part of the recovery and reconstruction response for the fisheries sector, FAO, in collaboration with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Philippines, provided livelihood and reconstruction assistance to 2 000 seaweed farming beneficiaries, including 1 000 households in four municipalities in Coron, Busuanga, Culion and Linapacan, Palawan.
For Jessica Paguia, 31, from the Tagbanua indigenous group in Coron, seaweed farming is a family business and has been the main source of income for the small coastal community for the past 20 years.
“When Yolanda hit, our house and all our farm tools were swept away by the typhoon,” Jessica said, looking out at the seawater on which they depend for their livelihood. “We don’t know where to start because we lost everything and have been relying on seaweed farming for years. Everyone has been affected – not just us.”
“As many seaweed farmers have been affected, it is crucial to rebuild their assets to allow them to restart their seaweed farming operations,” said Godardo Juanich, FAO Senior Aquaculture and Mariculture Advisor.
The assistance provided by FAO includes seaweed farming kits consisting of nylon lines, floats and planting materials, as well as family seaweed drying facilities and the establishment of seaweed nurseries to diversify and cultivate seaweed species.
Although seaweed farming has been severely damaged, it also provides an opportunity to introduce better farming methods for restoration and reconstruction. The training includes how to choose more suitable farming sites, prepare seedlings, maintain seaweed farms and how to access the market.
“We learned how to cut correctly, how to transplant to the nursery and how long it takes for the seaweed to reproduce,” Jessica said. “Before this, we just harvested the seaweed and dried it, which caused it to shrink. We didn’t know that we had to transplant before drying, so the training helped us reduce our losses.”
After the typhoon, many farmers took out loan sharks in order to buy fish fry and inputs to rebuild their farms, creating a vicious cycle of having to pay high interest and having to sell back their seaweed products at prices below the market price.
“The inputs and training we provide mean they will no longer need to get loans from these middlemen,” Juanich explains. “We show farmers how to go directly to market, and they now know how to produce their own seedlings, making them less dependent on other sources of inputs.”
With the tools, materials, and training they have received, seaweed farmers like Jessica and her family are slowly recovering and reestablishing more productive and resilient seaweed farms.
“Without this support, we would have no source of livelihood,” she said. “We can now use the various techniques we have learned to expand our seaweed farms and adapt our strategies according to climate conditions.”
Jessica doesn’t know what the future holds, but she is sure of one thing: “Right now, we can meet our basic daily needs, and these supplies are enough to help us recover our losses.”
Support for seaweed farming is part of FAO’s $8.2 million Haiyan Recovery and Reconstruction Programme for the fisheries sector, which is assisting some 19,000 fishing families in three regions of the Philippines: Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas and Mimaropa.
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