Rising After the Super Typhoon: How Elsa and Coconut Farmers Revived Over 100,000 Trees

When Typhoon #Rai (#Odette) devastated San Isidro, it destroyed an estimated 130,000 coconut trees. For Elsa, a 63-year-old farmer, mother, grandmother, and president of the women’s association in her community, this disaster threatened not just her livelihood but her way of life. Before the typhoon, she and her late husband harvested up to 2.5 tons of coconuts per season, mostly processed into copra meat. After the storm, her production plummeted to just 0.4 tons—a mere 16% of what it once was.

Despite this devastating loss, Elsa refused to give up. When the RISE Coco (Recovery Intervention for Severely Affected Coconut Farming Communities of Bohol by Super Typhoon Odette) project came to her barangay, she immediately signed up as a partner farmer and volunteered to train as a coconut nursery operator. She saw this as an opportunity not just to rebuild her farm, but to help her entire community recover. Through her leadership, many fallen trees have been replaced, ensuring future harvests for local farmers.