Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has approved
the Philippine Coconut Authority’s coconut planting project that
seeks to plant 10 million coconut seedlings throughout the
country using the most prolific coconut varieties - the OPVs or
Open Pollinated Varieties.
PCA Administrator Oscar G. Garin explained
the project adopts the participatory and reward system
approaches wherein the participating farmers get the following
monetary incentives: P5 for every good seednut sown in the
farmer’s own seedbed and with an identified and ready area for
future planting; another P5 for every good seedling at least 2
ft. tall grown and maintained in the seedbed for 5 months; and,
P20 for every transplanted good seedling 3 ft. tall which was
stabilized in the field for five months during the rainy season.
Based on this formula, farmers will earn a
minimum of P30 per seedling or P3,000 incentives per hectare.
Thus, if they have five hectares to be planted to coconuts, they
would get a total of P15,000. The grant of incentives will be in
the form of checks payable to the individual farmers – a
transparency mechanism.
The scheme is a great departure from the old
system of implementing the project as it eliminates the tedious
and more expensive process of nursery operations, polybagging of
seedlings, transport and handling of seednuts/seedlings from
source to planting site, among others, thereby significantly
reducing the cost. The project is doable, practical and caters
to the common interests and needs of the farmers in terms of
earnings and hunger mitigation.
The project would need a total budget of P350
million to cover the development of some 100,000 hectares and is
expected to benefit a total of 100,000 farmer-beneficiaries. The
budget would cover incentives for a total 15 million good
seednuts sown in the seedbed; 12.5 million good coconut
seedlings at least 2 feet tall grown and maintained in the
nursery of 5 months; 10 million transplanted seedlings 3 feet
tall which were stabilized in the field for 5 months; and,
minimal overhead cost.
In the implementation of the project, timing
is of the essence. Based on the PCA’s timetable, by December
2007 to January 2008 farmers must have seednuts sourced from
their own farms or in the neighboring farms. It is important to
source the seednuts during these times as they are actually the
product of long rainy season that started in June. Hence, they
are considered of good quality. The seednuts must be laid on the
ground before the end of January 2008 to give ample time for
them to germinate and grow vigorously up to June. By June or
July 2008 the seedlings must be transplanted in the field to
take advantage of the onset of the rainy season and allow them
to grow robustly and stabilize up to December so that they can
survive the onset of the dry season the following year.
