Saving typhoon-damaged coconut trees

The massive destruction wrought by three successive super storms in the last quarter of 2006 left coconut farmers in Quezon, the Bicol Region, Samar and other parts of the country with no viable option but to cut down the old trees for coco lumber, which offer them immediate economic relief from their depressing state.

Yet, these trees if treated with a bio organic fertilizer and soil conditioner called Exquisite can recover dramatically and give farmers long-term economic benefits from the fruits and the standing trees, said farmer Carmelo Deseo Verdan of Barangay Malinao, Ilaya, Atimonan, Quezon who treated 10 trees in the lower portion of his parents’ 5.5-hectare coconut farm prior to Milenyo and the two other successive storms of the last quarter of 2006.

The temptation to cut and sell coconut lumber is so strong that Verdan is waging a solo campaign to save the trees from the axe to ensure that the province and the entire country will not lose its premier position as a coconut producer of the world within a short period.

Prior to Milenyo, Verdan treated 10 trees in the lower portions with the Exquisite soil conditioner, which he bought from Chong Ken Foo, president of Exquisite Philippines. Verdan found that the treated trees were sturdier, suffered less breakdowns and shocks from the gusty winds (such as what the super storms brought), the leaves did not fall or disengage from the trunks and he saw signs of fruiting despite the strong winds.

Verdan said he bought his supply from Exquisite in April but he applied it to his coconut farm only last August. When he first harvested copra before Milenyo, he was able to earn P25,000 to P30,000. (He used to net only P10,000 from his farm.)

When the super storms lashed bet-ween October and December 2006, all the coconut trees fell down in Quezon. Verdan was not spared of the calamity and tried to make the best of the situation by selling his felled trees. Then he gathered up all the seeds that dropped and replanted them. Verdan is treating the new plantings with Exquisite and he hopes that they will be as productive as ever, if not more.

The Philippine Coconut Authority is projecting that the coconut farms will recover from new plantings only after five to six years.

"Let us see by March how much I will harvest and the copra yield of my harvest since I have not lost everything completely unlike my peers, who did not listen to my suggestion that they treat their trees with Exquisite," he said. Because of this, Verdan’s farm now serves as a techno-demo for others to view and he has scheduled a dialogue between farmer-leaders of Quezon with Chong Ken Foo of Exquisite Philippines.

He read extensively about Exquisite from agriculture magazines and from scientific studies undertaken by agricultural state colleges on the beneficial effects of the soil conditioner and bio fertilizer on fruits like bananas, durian, mango, papaya and practically all types of vegetables. "The results were science-based so I have to believe them. They were not self serving, so I told myself let me try these products, which are easy to use," he said.

He first tried Exquisite soil conditioner and bio fertilizer in his home- cutflower farm in Biñan, Laguna near Southwoods, which worked wonders to his orchids, vandas, anthuriums and now, the Euphorbia, a new craze plant that is thorny like a cactus but has beautiful and varied colors of flowers.

"It’s so easy to use unlike other organic fertilizers, which require tedious preparations. You just dilute the powdered live bacteria then apply it on the soil or directly on the leaves or flowers, then it works by activating the nutrients and natural organisms in the soil to feed the plant being conditioned," he said.

He said Exquisite will help farmers cut on the cost of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides aside from assuring their health against the toxic effects of chemicals. He said he used to suffer from too much itchiness and throat irritation when he used inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. But with Exquisite, I even drank it once since I found it beneficial to my farm animals.

"I have seen the benefits of using Ex-quisite on my coconuts and flowers in terms of input cost, labor savings and my health and I don’t see why other farmers like me won’t adopt this Chinese techno-logy, which has saved and nourished the billions of Chinese people," he said.