Building better: Modernizing agriculture after Yolanda (Part 6) Modernization of the coconut industry

by Dr. Emil Javier
Published in: http://www.mb.com.ph/building-better-modernizing-agriculture-after-yolanda-part-6/
September 13, 2014

The value of coconut to the Philippine economy is captured by the following statistics: Coconut
contributed P77.4 billion to the national economy in 2013, ranked fourth among crops after rice,
banana and corn. It is planted on 3.56 million hectares, about one-fourth of the total land area
devoted to agriculture. An estimated 3 million farmers are primarily engaged in coconut
cultivation. We are the world’s largest coconut producer and coconut oil exporter.

After the widespread devastation of agriculture, including coconuts, by Yolanda, a suggestion
was made that instead of replanting with coconut, we switch to oil palm and rubber, which tree
crops provide more incomes per hectare per year.

Indeed oil palm and rubber give higher yields but unfortunately they are very susceptible to
strong winds. Oil palm has shallow roots and is top heavy and is easily toppled over. Rubber, on
the other hand, has weak trunk and branches which easily break.
Coconut on the other hand, is typhoon-resilient and easily weathers the many typhoons which
make landfall, except the very severe ones like Yolanda. Coconut loses many fruits and flowers
but recovers within 2–3 years.

Besides coconut is adapted to saline soils in coastal areas which lands we have plenty of because
of our archipelagic geography.

Moreover there are four other advantages of coconut over other tree crops:

• Many annual crops (corn, vegetables, legumes, root crops) and perennial crops (papaya,
bananas, coffee, cacao, black pepper, lanzones and other fruit trees) can be profitably grown
under coconuts. Scientifically managed pastures under coconuts can support dairy animals,
sheep and goats. Incomes from these intercrops often exceed that from coconut itself.
• All the plant parts of coconut (husks, shell, water, meat, inflorescence, fronds, leaves, midribs
and trunks) can be processed into various products, each of which can spawn small and medium
scale enterprises which generate rural employment and create added value to the economy.
• Coconut oil like other vegetable oils can be further processed into specialty oleochemicals
which have many applications in personal and health cure, plastics, fuels and lubricants,
pesticides, food ingredients and industrial uses.
• Coconut like rice is intricately woven into our culture and traditions. Coconut gata is a
ubiquitous daily culinary ingredient in our national cuisine.

Thus, while we can safely and profitably expand oil palm and rubber cultivation in relatively
typhoon-free Mindanao and Palawan, for most of the Visayas and Luzon, coconut remains the
industrial tree crop of choice because of agro-ecological adaptation and environment
conservation, high employment generation, food security, forward linkages to industry, the
weave of culture and tradition and as an iconic feature of Philippine beaches for tourism
purposes.

We are the global leader in coconut production. How do we keep that dominant position and at
the same time generate greater value out of that comparative advantage? In other words, how do
we modernize the Philippine coconut industry to make it more productive, globally competitive
but environmentally sustainable and equitable, particularly to the small farmers who can be and
are often short-changed in the rush toward agriculture modernization?

There are four major pathways by which to modernize the Philippine coconut industry,
balancing economic and competitiveness objectives with environment sustainability and social
equity goals. These are:

1. Raising the productivity of the coconut tree itself by salt and fertilizer applications and better
farm management (near term) and massive replanting with high yielding PCA coconut hybrids
(long term),
2. Intensive sustainable multiple canopy coconut farming with high value annual crops and
perennials,
3. Maximum utilization of all parts of the coconut by creating village-level processing depots
organized around the wet processing technology of coconut into virgin coconut oil and coconut
flour, in order to assemble the coconut raw materials at least cost, and
4. Downstream integration with oleochemicals production but focused on a few specific specialty
oleochemicals and industry applications.

I will elaborate on these major modernization pathways in succeeding columns.

***
Dr. Emil Q. Javier is Chair of the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines
(CAMP). For any feedback , email eqjavier@yahoo.com.