Farmers Lose Debt Gamble in Typhoon-Plagued Philippines

Philippine rice farmer Francisco Santo Domingo’s life is in ruins after losing yet another gamble with nature, but the typhoon that destroyed his crops means gleeful loan sharks have again hit the jackpot.
Farmers Lose Debt Gamble in Typhoon-Plagued Philippines
This photo taken on October 20, 2015 shows submerged houses and rice fields due to heavy rains brought about by typhoon Koppu with floods as high as three metres, wiping out vast swathes of farmlands, sinking deeper poor farmers into a quicksand of crushing debt in the rice-growing central region. TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images
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Philippine rice farmer Francisco Santo Domingo’s life is in ruins after losing yet another gamble with nature, but the typhoon that destroyed his crops means gleeful loan sharks have again hit the jackpot.

Like thousands of other farmers, Santo Domingo will be forced to go back to the “shadow” bankers who dominate the nation’s agricultural economy and take on even more debt at exorbitant interest rates.

“My life is an endless cycle of borrowing money to plug more money that I owe,” a disconsolate Santo Domingo, 37, told AFP as he looked over crops that were just a week away from harvest but ruined by Typhoon Koppu.

“This storm will mean we will go hungry for a very long time. We bet everything on this harvest.”

Koppu brought floods as high as 3 metres (10 feet) to one of the Philippines’ most important rice growing regions, fertile central plains on the main island of Luzon.

A duck stands on floating debris next to a submerged house due to heavy rains brought about by typhoon Koppu, on October 20, 2015. (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)
A duck stands on floating debris next to a submerged house due to heavy rains brought about by typhoon Koppu, on October 20, 2015. TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images