Although the rich soil of Leyte is conducive to the growing of various commercial crops, its location near the Pacific Ocean has made it prone to strong typhoons which destroys crops. The government can help in this regard by providing crop insurance protection especially to subsistence farmers in the province. A U.N. commissioned study in conjunction with the experts from South Africa and Australia has highlighted the need to put up some networks that utilize human capital from individual members. This is to ensure that available resources are managed in a sustainable manner through the sharing of the expertise and experience of individual members. This is to maximize industry innovation and improvement that individually cannot be attained otherwise. A particular concern is the use of pesticides by rice farmers which adversely impacted on their health.

working in the sugarcane
Leyte’s agricultural lands are better suited to sugar cane planting and other commercial crops that should be undertaken by big agri-business firms. This approach will utilize the advantages of economies of scale which is not available to the ordinary farmer. This large-scale view of tackling the problems of unemployment and underemployment also applies to fishing if done correctly. The island is surrounded by rich fishing grounds that teem with many fish varieties and only large-scale commercial fishing can access this bounty. We must remember that Leyte has its more than usual share of typhoons that are dangerous to small sea crafts.
the tree of life – coconuts
The degraded environment is best seen from the air where the thick forests once stood. Rapacious logging activities had led to deforestation of large mountain areas in most of the island and belated reforestation efforts will take years to reverse the denudation. Most of the previously forested areas were cleared for planting and production of sugar cane but damage to the environment is very hard to reverse and will take several decades to undo. The coconut industry has suffered too due to cutting of these trees to be used and sold as coco lumber. A renewed effort to re-plant coconut trees of the early-fruiting variety is being undertaken by some plantations. The establishment of additional coconut oil mills has been deferred due to the tight supply of coconuts.