Campaigners donate seeds to ‘Lando’ survivors

TUBLAY, Benguet—The advocacy group promoting respect for Filipino farmers distributed organic seeds to Benguet gardeners who lost crops when Typhoon “Lando” crossed northern Luzon last week.

Members of Greenpeace Southeast Asia Philippines and other organizations pushing for the “IAmHampasLupa” campaign visited this town on Friday and handed out farm relief packages to 200 farmers from Tublay and La Trinidad town, the Benguet capital.

The IAmHampasLupa national campaign was launched in Baguio City on Oct. 10 to encourage political candidates to make safe food production part of their platform.

Benguet produces 80 percent of Metro Manila’s daily supply of salad vegetables like potatoes, carrots, broccoli, string beans, lettuce and cabbages.

Tublay lost crops and farms worth P27.9 million, according to the town’s agriculture office.

“I hope our farmers can quickly recover,” said Tublay Mayor Ruben Paoad.

Bernadette Behis, 58, a farmer of Barangay Ambongdolan here, said she needed to recoup P50,000 worth of cucumber, cabbages, lettuce, celery and potatoes which she lost to Lando.

“The typhoon destroyed my crops and killed some of my livestock. I traded only a few crops I managed to save. This is the first time we lost this much to a typhoon,” she said.

The relief packs were donated by the Department of Agriculture and Greenpeace partners like the Kahariam Organic Farm, Cosmic Farm and a farmer in Gerona, Tarlac province. Jessica Tabilin, Inquirer Northern Luzon