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Monday, July 11, 2005
Capiz coco farmers inspired by products' market demand
Roxas City -- Coconut farmers have embarked anew on tree planting province wide to meet the huge global demand of raw materials by manufacturers producing coco-based products.
The demand is reflected in the current market price of copra at P14.50 per kilogram. The copra price is the highest recorded in the last ten years.
Jeffrey Delos Reyes, Philippine Coconut Authority Provincial Manager in Capiz, said that seed production at its breeding stations is totally reserved due to a notable increase in the demand for planting materials.
The coconut seedling production centers are the Coco Germplasm Testing Station in Pontevedra town and the Coconut Breeding Trial Unit (CBTU) in Mambusao, Capiz. The 65-hectare CBTU is the country's second largest collection of coconut variety with 84 selections mostly in fruit-bearing phase.
The introduction of virgin coconut oil as by-product of coconut, which helps farmers earn extra income, has also triggered them to support government efforts to expand coconut areas by 1.35 million hectares until 2010. The country's virgin coconut oil producers are now exporting its produce to China, United States of America and soon to Gambia in West Africa.
Statistics at the PCA here showed that 25 thousand registered coco farmers planted at least 1.9 coconut trees in a 14,000-hectare coco-groove.
In Mambusao, Capiz, coconut was singled out as a major crop to be developed in view of the government's One-Town-One-Product (OTOP) program.
The municipal government has initially identified five barangays as tree planting sites to boost coconut production in the area.
PCA will also carry out fertilization of the nutrient-deficient coconut land as a faster option to raise coconut production every year.
(July 11, 2005 issue)
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