Leyte Pushes Alternative Disaster-Resilient Crops

Tacloban City (PNA) — The Leyte provincial government is bent on pushing compact farming as a way of building new industries and reduce its reliance on disaster-prone rice and coconut plantations.

Governor Dominico Petilla said that almost two years after Yolanda, Leyte is still unable to recover fully from the loss of the two major industries.

He noted that compact farming has been providing alternative livelihood to affected farmers engaged in cultivating high quality vegetables and fruits.

Petilla has been going around the province to join farmers in harvesting high quality products. He admitted, however, that the harvested products are not sufficient to supply the wide local market in the province.

Last April, a thousand farmers harvested their produce sold it in trade fairs in Tacloban City and Palo towns.

“Now we come to a stage that several farms produced are already reserved even before harvest,” Gov. Petilla said.

After super typhoon Yolanda in 2013 and typhoons Ruby and Seniang last year, which caused much damage to Leyte’s agricultural sector, the governor guaranteed to support Leyte’s continuing fight against poverty by paving ways for a continuous means of farming-related livelihood. (PNA) FFC/SQM/LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/EGR