Coconut rehab in Cebu continues

CEBU, Philippines – Over 90,000 coconut seedlings have already been planted in Cebu as part of continuing effort to recover the province’s coconut industry which was severely damaged by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) said.

Andy Cornell Bornillo, technical officer at PCA in Central Visayas, said that as of November 2015, a total of 94,197 coconut seedlings have already been planted in 17 Yolanda-affected municipalities in Cebu. This replanting activity, already participated by 873 farmers, is under the Yolanda Recovery and Rehabilitation Program.

A total of 180,696 seedlings have also been planted under its Participatory Coconut Planting Project, he said.

He told The FREEMAN that the recovery of the coconut industry in Cebu could take 3-5 years. According to Bornillo, a dwarf variety of coconut takes 3-4 years to grow while a tall variety has 5-7 years to grow.

He said a P39-million budget had been given to PCA-7 this year for its coconut rehabilitation program.

It was reported early this year that PCA was expecting a P294-million losses in the coconut industry in Cebu in 2015, still as a result of typhoon Yolanda.

PCA had reported a total of 1,411,698 coconut trees, which made up 26% of the total number of coconut trees in Cebu, were destroyed by Yolanda.

He said the destruction Yolanda brought to the industry had significantly affected the coconut production in Cebu. He, however, added that lot of improvements have already been achieved in the sector.

The Philippines coconut industry in general is an export-oriented sector. It has about 3.5 million farmers and 26% of the country’s farm land is devoted to coconut farming.

PCA is the agency tasked to develop the country’s coconut and palm oil industries.  (FREEMAN)