Puno bats for revival of the coco industry

Stressing the need to spur economic growth in the countryside, former Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ricardo "Dong" Puno Jr. has called on the government to go full speed ahead on the ambitious farm productivity program geared to reverse the coconut slump and raise tenfold the incomes of small farmers in Bicol and other coconut-producing regions.

Puno, a front-running senatorial candidate of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, said the "Maunlad na Niyugan para sa Kahirapan" program should be a priority of the government if it wants to revive the country’s stagnant coconut industry and increase farm production in one-third of the country’s arable and agricultural lands.

"One-third or 3.3 million hectares of our farmland, which includes large portions of Bicol, is planted to coconut. Thus, the government must go full blast with the Niyugan program, which will not only raise the incomes of our long-suffering 1.5 million coconut farmers but also benefit one-third of our population," Puno told local journalists in this city, where he and the rest of the senatorial candidates of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino are on the second leg of their three-day swing to Bicol region.

The Niyugan program, Puno said, aims to establish model farms in various coconut producing areas in the country to make coconut farmers self-sufficient in food and raise their gross annual earnings more than tenfold from P10,000 to P120,000 per hectare.

Model farms have already been established by the Philippine Coconut Authority in Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, Masbate and Catanduanes.

"Because of the lack of modern facilities and limited access to credit, coconut farmers nationwide harvest only one metric ton of coconut per hectare per year for an average-sized plantation, way below the optimum level of 2 to 4 MT per hectare per year. The country has more than 300 million coconut trees that bear only 12 million nuts per year," said Puno, whose eight-point program Puno ng Pag-asa para sa Masa includes food security and rural productivity.

According to the former press secretary and presidential spokesman, the government must also launch a massive information campaign and conduct training programs to help farmers learn new skills such as agri-business ventures and home-based food production that will sustain their incomes during the lean season.

Given the sector’s low productivity yield, he noted that coconut lands are increasingly being converted for commercial or other non-agricultural purposes.

The Niyugan program, according to Puno, will help reverse this trend with the establishment of 15-to-20-hectare model coconut farms formed from a cluster of small contiguous coconut farms owned and operated by small farmers.

Each model farm should be equipped with adequate water supply, post-harvest facilities, irrigation systems, and facilities for livestock and aquaculture production to encourage farmers to engage in other livelihood opportunities especially during times of low copra demand and prices, Puno said.

He noted that about 2.1 million hectares of coconut land are not utilized for intercropping and food production activities.

Under the Niyugan program, farmers are also encouraged to organize cooperatives to help them market their products and undertake small businesses, he added.