Philippine rice farmers bear brunt of expensive fuel and El Nino

Nikkei (Japan Economic Daily) online

asia.nikkei.com

NUEVA ECIJA, Philippines -- Elvira Fadriquelan, 60, has spent more than half her life farming rice on nearly a hectare of land in Lubao, Pampanga. In this town, some 100 kilometers north of Manila, farmers' fields are in their backyards. That proximity once promised security, but now serves as a dai