ILOILO CITY — The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is banking on the participation of the community for its Accelerated Coconut Planting and Replanting Program in Western Visayas.
Francis B. Fegarido, officer in charge of PCA Western Visayas, said they have set aside PHP24 million to adopt the participatory coconut planting project where an interested coconut farmer will be paid PHP40 for every surviving coconut plant.
Under this scheme, the farmer has to produce and raise the coconut seedlings as the PCA will no longer distribute seedlings, Fegarido said.
Upon inspection, the farmer will be paid PHP18 for every seed nut. After three months, another inspection will be conducted and every surviving coconut seedling will be paid PHP22.
A coconut farmer may plant a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 500 seedlings. The PCA will continue to monitor the plantation up to three years where farmers may get other implements such as fertilizer if there is an available supply.
While the government pays for every surviving coconut plant, yet the coconut belongs to farmer, he added.
This year, Fegarido said they target to plant some 600,000 coconut seedlings that will cover 6,000 hectares in Western Visayas.
Currently, the region has around 9.5 to 10 million coconut-bearing trees — the bulk is in Aklan and Negros Occidental provinces.
Meanwhile, PCA is ready with the list of legitimate coconut farmers should the record is needed. As of December 2017, there are 157,000 coconut farmers in the region, Fegarido said.
The number, however, is still subject to inclusion and exclusion proceedings because there are other farmers who have long been dead or there are double counting.
“We are continuously receiving survey forms,” he said.
He also announced that they have fully replaced those coconuts that were damaged by typhoon Yolanda.
He said that two million coconuts were planted using their “Yolanda” assistance and regular funds. (Perla Lena/PNA)
