Farmers' Community Assets and Coping Strategies for Disaster in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte: A Proposed Resilience Program

This quantitative study, guided by Resilience and Resource-Based theories, assessed the disaster resilience of 277 rice farmers in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte, by examining their community assets and coping strategies. The findings revealed that the farming population is predominantly composed of older, female, and married individuals with low formal education and a high dependence on a single livelihood, making them particularly vulnerable to climate shocks. While the community possesses strong social assets and proactive coping strategies, they exhibit significant weaknesses in its financial, human, and physical assets. Specifically, farmers expressed clear disagreement on access to fair markets and collective emergency funds, and they were uncertain about their knowledge of climate-resilient farming. The study also found a significant positive correlation between financial assets and ex-post coping strategies, and that resilience levels varied significantly by geographic location, with inland farmers being the most vulnerable. Based on these findings, a proposed resilience program was developed. This program aims to leverage the community's social strengths to address critical gaps in financial, human, and physical assets through targeted initiatives like financial literacy workshops, climate-resilient agriculture training, and location-specific planning. The ultimate goal is to empower the community with a sustainable, data-driven framework for disaster preparedness and recovery.