Restoring coconut farmers' livelihoods in the Philippines

Palompon, Leyte, Philippines – The road to recovery has not been easy for 52 year old Marcelina Calvez and her husband who have been farming this area of the Philippines for more than 30 years. They have seven children and, like many coconut farmers, they do not own their land. Even prior to Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as “Yolanda”), the half hectare of coconuts they were farming was not enough to meet the family’s needs. “After Yolanda, we lost our livelihood but we still had debts to pay,” said Marcelina. “The hardest part was trying to earn money to feed my family.” Restoring livelihoods and building the resilience of coconut farmers was a paramount consideration in the aftermath of the typhoon and this meant providing farmers with a stable source of alternative livelihood that could be sustained even with limited land resources and capital.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Allan Dow
Format: Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet biblioteca
Language:English
Published: FAO ; 2016
Online Access:https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/I5782E
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5782e.pdf
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Summary:Palompon, Leyte, Philippines – The road to recovery has not been easy for 52 year old Marcelina Calvez and her husband who have been farming this area of the Philippines for more than 30 years. They have seven children and, like many coconut farmers, they do not own their land. Even prior to Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as “Yolanda”), the half hectare of coconuts they were farming was not enough to meet the family’s needs. “After Yolanda, we lost our livelihood but we still had debts to pay,” said Marcelina. “The hardest part was trying to earn money to feed my family.” Restoring livelihoods and building the resilience of coconut farmers was a paramount consideration in the aftermath of the typhoon and this meant providing farmers with a stable source of alternative livelihood that could be sustained even with limited land resources and capital.