Free Newsletters - Space - Defense - Environment - Energy
..
. Farming News .




POLITICAL ECONOMY
Philippines sees high growth despite typhoon
by Staff Writers
Manila (AFP) Dec 17, 2013


UN supplies seeds for typhoon-hit Philippine farmers
Rome (AFP) Dec 17, 2013 - The UN food agency on Tuesday said it had begun supplying farmers in the Philippines with emergency seed supplies after a devastating typhoon that struck just at the beginning of the planting season.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said it was delivering rice and corn seed to rural communities in the Visayan island group that will allow farmers to collect a harvest in March and April.

FAO's representative in the Philippines, Rodrigue Vinet, said that without the harvest, vulnerable farmers would not have been able to harvest rice for almost a year -- until October or November 2014.

"Seed distributions have come at a critical moment," he said in a statement.

FAO said more than 1,000 farmers from the hardest-hit Eastern and Western Visayas, the central part of the Philippines archipelago, will each receive a 40-kilogramme (88-pound) bag of seeds.

It said it was also delivering bags of fertilizer as well as tools and small irrigation water pumps.

Humanitarian organisations said that 74 percent of farmers in two regions of the Visayas had reported that their crops and seed were lost in the typhoon.

Typhoon Haiyan killed 6,069 people when it struck the country last month, while also destroying more than a million homes, displacing four million people.

A total of 1,779 other people are still missing.

The Philippine economy should grow 7.0 percent this year and between 6.5 and 7.5 percent next year despite the devastation caused by a killer typhoon and an earthquake, the government said Tuesday.

Economic planning minister Arsenio Balisacan said that while losses in agriculture caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan in November were expected to hit growth in the near term, rebuilding would likely make up for it further down the line.

He said 2013 gross domestic product (GDP) growth should hit the "upper limit" of the government's 6.0-7.0 percent target, forecasts first made before Haiyan hit last month and a 7.1-magnitude quake struck some of the country's main tourist regions in October.

"Without all these crises, we could have achieved 7.3-7.5 percent growth this year," Balisacan said in a statement.

Nevertheless, he added that the Philippines should continue its hot streak of five consecutive quarters of at least 7.0 percent growth.

"For 2014, we forecast growth to be in the 6.5-7.5 percent range."

Haiyan killed 6,069 people when it struck the centre of the country last month, while also destroying more than a million homes, displacing four million people.

A total of 1,779 others are still missing, according to a government tally.

President Benigno Aquino has said rebuilding dozens of towns and cities, some of which were obliterated by tsunami-like storm surges brought by Haiyan, would require nearly $3 billion of government spending.

Balisacan said Manila would shortly unveil a reconstruction plan for areas hit by Haiyan.

"The intention mainly is to restore the economic and social conditions of these areas at the very least to their pre-typhoon levels and to a higher level of disaster resilience," he added.

Despite the period of high growth, Balisacan acknowledged that the government had yet to make a significant dent on widespread poverty and joblessness.

About 25.2 percent of the population were considered poor last year, almost unchanged from 26.3 percent in 2011, according to government data.

And the unemployment rate stood at 6.5 percent in October, on top of 17.9 percent of the labour force that were considered underemployed.

"These twin problems of poverty and unemployment require more than just five quarters of impressive economic growth," Balisacan said.

"Structural transformation is necessary, that is, to manoeuvre the economy from one that is household consumption-driven... to one that is increasingly investment-led and employment-oriented."

.


Related Links
The Economy






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





POLITICAL ECONOMY
Walker's World: Merkel -- Reigning or ruling?
Paris (UPI) Dec 16, 2013
Germany's new coalition government threatens to leave Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's dominant politician, reigning rather than ruling in her homeland after the opposition Social Democrats extracted a stiff price for their support. Merkel just failed to gain a clear center-right majority in the Bundestag, Germany's Parliament, in the fall elections and so was forced into prolonged ne ... read more


POLITICAL ECONOMY
Mitsubishi Electric Awarded Contract for GOSAT-2 Satellite System

CryoSat Tracks Storm Surge

Juno Gives Starship-Like View Of Earth Flyby

China-Brazil satellite fails to enter orbit

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Galileo achieves its first airborne tracking

'Smart' wig navigates by GPS, monitors brainwaves

CIA, Pentagon trying to hinder construction of GLONASS stations in US

GPS 3 Prototype Communicates With GPS Constellation

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Young tropical forests contribute little to biodiversity conservation

More logging, deforestation may better serve climate in some areas

Humans threaten wetlands' ability to keep pace with sea-level rise

Development near Oregon, Washington public forests

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Seaweed Energy Solutions (SES) acquires wild seaweed operation in Norway

Biorefinery could put South Australian forest industry back on growth track

Algae to crude oil: Million-year natural process takes minutes in the lab

Ground broken on $6 million Hungarian farm biogas plant

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Prothea advised on purchase of 6.7 MW solar photovoltaic farms operating in Italy

DuPont Solar Materials Meet Sharp Corporation's Stringent Quality Standards

Solar Energy Solidarity donates products for three solar installations in Africa

Microgrid Solar and Doe Run To Provide Solar Upgrades at Herculaneum High

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Austria's wind industry laments new zoning restrictions

Wind energy: TUV Rheinland certifies PowerWind wind turbines

Renewable Energy Infrastructure Fund acquires 16 MW wind power asset from O2

Morgan Advanced Materials Delivers Superior Insulation Solution To Wind Farm

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Top German court throws out suit over giant coal mine

Australian coal projects at risk of being 'stranded'

China mine explosion kills 21

Coal rush ravages Indonesian Borneo

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Human rights a matter for China, not US: Beijing

US urges China to free Nobel laureate

Stuffed toy wolf becomes anti-government symbol in Hong Kong

China bans shark fin soup from official receptions




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement