Coconut planting to be linked to CCT program

By: Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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To support the investments that two American firms have committed to make in the country’s coconut industry, replanting efforts will be linked to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

In an interview with reporters, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said helping in replanting efforts would be made one of the conditions for beneficiaries of the CCT to receive their allowance.

Domingo said that right after landing in Manila from President Aquino’s official visit to the United States last week, he met with Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman to discuss the details of the replanting efforts.

“We knew we had to do massive replanting. The Department of Agriculture has already committed to do replanting and fertilization of existing trees to increase their yield. We then discussed tying up the DA’s replanting efforts with the DSWD’s CCT program,” Domingo explained.

“I don’t know yet what the mechanics will be, but replanting could be used as one of the conditions for households to participate in the CCT, similar to how families are required to send their children to school,” he added.

Domingo said hundreds of thousands of hectares of land would have to be planted to coconuts if the country wanted to take advantage of the global coco water demand boom.

Brazil, he related, was running out of coco water supply for the global market because of its huge domestic demand. With demand for coco water growing by an average of 40 percent a year, the Philippines could step up to the plate and cover the supply gap that Brazil could leave.

In the agriculture sector, he said the coconut industry had the biggest potential for revenue generation and job creation in the countryside.

“We have to have a big ambition. The demand is there. The only limit is on our capability to supply,” Domingo said.

On his trip to the United States last week, Aquino said two American companies, Pepsi Co. and Vita Coco, had expressed interest in making fresh investments in the Philippine coconut industry to meet the international demand for coco water.

Aquino said Vita Coco officials had told him during his US visit that they intended to invest $15 million in the country in the next four years.

Philippine Coconut Authority Administrator Euclides Forbes said the agency was given a budget of P354 million for fertilization in 2012. This year, the replanting budget was increased to P512 million from only P60 million.

With this budget, Forbes said the PCA could fertilize 96,000 hectares of coconut plantations with each tree given two kilos of salt a year. Coconut trees thrived on sandy soil with a high level of salinity.

The PCA also planned to replant 100,000 saplings every year to replace aging coconut trees, Forbes said.

He said around 44.8 million of the country’s 320 million coconut trees had been classified as old and senile, producing few or no nuts at all. These trees should be cut and sold as coconut lumber.

The peak years of coconut trees are between 7 and 25 years old, when they bear between 40 and 65 nuts a year.

Agri department to launch goat raising technology

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THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is bringing in the goat raising technology in Northern Samar this week after noting that animal population in pilot areas of the region has doubled in the past three years.

Wilson Cerbito, Department of Agriculture regional technical director for research and regulations, said that with these gains, the project will be introduced in San Roque, Northern Samar.

“The local government there is interested to adopt the Rural Enterprise Development (RED) approach in goat production. We will conduct orientation. We have been advocating this project to local officials for them to adopt this protocol,” said Cerbito, the national and regional focal person of the RED project for goats.

The official said that based on their latest inventory this year, the number of goats in eight pilot towns and cities in the region went up to 1,722 from 811 in 2008.

“The population must be higher than reported, considering that we only counted animals that were not sold during the day of inventory,” Cerbito said in an interview.

Eastern Visayas, the only pilot area of RED project outside Luzon, has posted the highest increase among the four regions that pushed the initiative.

Cerbito claimed that government interventions in goat production are upgrading of native stocks, improving housing, proper feeding, provisions of herbal medicine, and provision of hybrid breeder.

The DA also extended financial support and marketing assistance to 180 farmer-partners in 25 villages of Tabango,  Villaba, Ormoc City, Matag-ob, Jaro, Sta. Fe, and Tacloban City in Leyte, and Calbayog City.

“The project is done in these areas but it is now continued by farmer’s association. We continue to monitor their activities and assist them on their special needs,” Cerbito added.

He pointed that this is not the usual dispersal program of the National Government. “We just provide quality male breeder and introduce the production technology to them.”

RED Program applied the participatory approach in a bid to secure local government support, make goat as priority commodity, identify community problems, and draft solutions.

“The farmer-partners were capacitated with technology and entrepreneurial trainings. They were exposed to various goat production methods in different areas through educational tour; participation in goat congresses, trade fairs, and festivals,” Cerbito added.

The official claimed that the strategy has opened the consciousness to the variety of ways they can earn a living from goat raising.

“After building awareness of farmers, they were then given the leeway in choosing technologies that could solve their individual farm problems,” Cerbito said.

The RED project has been implemented in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and Eastern Visayas. Different interventions have raised goat population in pilot areas from 3,290 in 2008 to 6,108 this year.

The main goal of the RED project is poverty alleviation and to transform the old system or traditional way of goat raising into an enterprise. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)

Coco Coir Processing Firm To Be Established In Baybay

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BAYBAY CITY -- A Chinese coconut husk processing firm will soon open in this city after it gets pertinent papers to start operation, Mayor Carmen Cari said.

Cari said the firm, whose products are to be shipped in China, already acquired a property in the city where it will construct its processing plant in about six months from now.

Baybay is generally an agricultural city, with farming as a major means of livelihood. Among its most common crops are palay, corn, abaca, root crops, fruits, and vegetables.

Cari said with the infestation of its major crops, including abaca; she hopes that the plant will provide alternative livelihood and source of income among her constituents.

Cari added a Japanese firm also visited the city to look for a possible site for the construction of its plant.

“They want their processing plant to be near coastal area because they are also planning to put up their own wharf,” she said. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)