Norway FM visits Samar

BASEY, Samar, Philippines – Visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende handed sacks of rice seedlings to farmers in Barangay Can-abay in Samar yesterday.

Speaking to reporters, Brende said the situation in Typhoon Yolanda-hit areas remained critical.

“The needs are immense and a huge effort is being made by a wide range of actors,” he said.

Ador Amascual, Basey municipal agricultural officer, said 1,914 bags of rice seedlings were distributed to the farmers in Basey.

“If they missed this planting season they would not harvest until the next harvest season in October,” he said. “And they would have to rely on food aid for almost a year.”

Brende said Norway is closely monitoring the humanitarian situation in Philippines.

“It is providing faster assistance in this serious crisis,” he said.

Norway has sent some experts and equipment through the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Emergency Standby Roster and the Norwegian Emergency Preparedness System, Brende said.

He personally supervised his government’s humanitarian operations in Samar and discussed its role in the recovery efforts.

Accompanying Brende were Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in the Philippines Rajendra Aryal and Department of Agriculture Eastern Visayas executive director Antonio Gerundio.

Brende also visited devastated rice lands in the municipality, particularly in Barangay Tingib, and had an interaction with the farmers.

Pointing to the rice fields behind her, Marygrace Andalan, 44, told Brende they were about to harvest their palay when Yolanda inundated their farms.

“It destroyed some 200 bags of our ready-for-harvest palay planted in our four hectares rice lands,” she said.

Andalan’s family is one of the 43,579 typhoon-affected families getting support from the FAO with quality, certified rice seed in time for the planting season.

The DA has reported that some 600,000 hectares of rice lands were devastated and some 1.1 metric tons of crops were lost – about 80 percent in Eastern Visayas – following the devastation of Yolanda.

Paul Manalo, FAO emergency communications consultant, has requested support for the 63,234 hectares of devastated rice crops in Eastern Visayas alone.

FAO has bridged the gap for rice seeds in Eastern Visayas through the support of Switzerland, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, as well as from the UN-CERF funds, he added.

FAO, in collaboration with the DA, is the first organization to deliver rice seeds to Eastern Visayas.

Brende proceeded to Tacloban City and Basey after a short visit to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.