In his latest Facebook post, Mr Dar shares 7 “R4D Strategies To Increase Farmer Productivity, Profitability And Sustainability.” He is the first Secretary of Agriculture whom I remember is worried about the lowland farmers as well as the coconut farmers. In the past many decades, hardly are the coco farmers mentioned in the news.
Here are the strategies in Mr Dar’s list:
(1) Increase yields & productivity (on-farm and off-farm)
(2) Reduce/optimize production costs
(3) Reduce field losses
(4) Reduce postharvest losses
(5) Obtain a fair market price for his produce
(6) Make project interventions socially acceptable
(7) Make project interventions environmentally safe.
An actual news has been written, “Coconut Sector Interventions Set[1]” by Madeleine B Miraflor (18 February 2020, Manila Bulletin). Note that it is more than 6 months old, and Mr Dar’s Facebook sharing is only a day old. This tells me that he is reminding new Philippine Coconut Authority, PCA Administrator Benjamin R Madrigal of his (Mr Dar’s) February 2020 order “to immediately execute interventions in the coconut sector, which has been struggling from low prices and productivity over the past years.” Immediately, because the data from the United Coconut Association of the Philippines, UCAP, showed that we exported 127,049 metric tons of copra in December 2019, which was 26% lower than that in the previous year.
There are 3.5 million coconut farmers in the Philippines, with 25 million in/directly dependent on the coconut for livelihood[2] (PCA.gov.ph).
(Mr Dar) said that Madrigal must be able to lead the expansion of coconut production areas and replacement of senile and unproductive and damaged coconut trees with high-yielding varieties.
I have already written that PH coconuts are ancient, dating to the Spanish colonial times, awaiting extinction (see my essay, “PH Coconuts – The Hidden Enemy Is Not The Oil Palm But Extinction![3],“ 27 August 2020, BraveNewWorld.PH). All our coconut plantations need replanting.
This, according to (Mr Dar), could be done through the Accelerated Coconut Planting and Replanting through (the) Coconut Hybridization Project; the enhancement of farmers’ access to quality planting materials through the Seed Farm Development Project; and the formation of cooperative business units or enterprises to enable a higher level of coconut processing plants.
To be competitive with the rest of the world in coconut terms, the Philippines must hurry up its coconut planting and replanting. And this revival will be done by the Seed Farm Development Project distributing high-quality seed nuts to farmers as soon as possible. As I pointed out above, our coconuts are already centenarians, near extinction!
Mr Dar also mentions the “formation of cooperative business units or enterprises to enable a higher level of coconut processing plants.” Such as in producing high-quality desiccated coconut, as well as world-class virgin coconut oil, especially with its much-touted health benefits.
Before or in-between any coconut processing activity, with the coco coop in place, the farmers can be assisted in cash cropping to add much to their limited incomes.
No longer will the coconut be a poor man’s crop!@517
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