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Thomson Reuters Foundation
KUALA LUMPUR
The destruction of crops by a powerful typhoon will push people in the Philippines deeper into poverty and prolong recovery efforts, aid agencies said as they called for more assistance for farmers.
Typhoon Mangkhut tore across the northern part of the Philippines just over a week ago, wrecking homes and triggering landslides that killed dozens of people. The storm struck an agricultural area of the island of Luzon and flooded other farming regions as well, causing at least $177 million worth of damage to rice and corn crops, according to agriculture authorities."Very clearly what is needed is livelihood recovery, because floods and landslides have really affected crops,"said Maria Rosario Felizco, head of the British aid agency Oxfam in the Philippines. Felizco, whose group has been sending clean water and planning to bring cash aid to local communities, said many residents had barely recovered from another strong typhoon that struck in 2016.
"Once they get into that debt cycle, it's even harder for them to recover,"she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Manila.
"They are already poor to begin with and because they are poor, they are so vulnerable to disasters that when one strikes, it takes them further and further into that cycle of poverty."
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25/09/2018
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