By Venus G. Villanueva
Planting coconuts will never be this fun for Aklan coconut farmers – they will earn for money from it even before what they planted bear nuts.
This scheme is the newest being introduced by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) under its Participatory Coconut Planting Project.
According to Plevy Raco, Provincial Head of PCA-Aklan, the project is open to everybody. Under the program, a coconut farmer will be paid for each coconut seedling grown in his coconut farm. The farmer should have a selected planting area before he is given P5.00 incentive per coconut seedling he planted on or before January 31, 2008.
When the coconut seedlings reach two (2) feet five months after having been planted in the farmer’s maintained area, another P5.00 will be paid him per seedling. As soon as the coconut plants reach three (3) feet with stable growth for five months (at around November 30, 2008), the farmer will then be paid P20.00 per tree, for a total of P30.00 incentive per tree.
According to the PCA, each incentive check will be handed personally to coconut farmers. In Western Visayas, Aklan has the biggest coconut cover. Already, several coconut-based industries had been spawned in Aklan because of its abundant nuts. There are oil mills, virgin coconut oil producers and other home-based industries utilizing various products and by products of the coconut tree.
At present, PCA-Aklan and other concerned agencies including the provincial government of Aklan are engaging in the prevention and control of Brontispa infestation in Boracay Island which had ravaged its coconut trees and ornamental palms. Efforts are now being made to prevent the coconut pest from reaching the Aklan mainland.
PCA’s Participatory Coconut Planting Project is a breakthrough project of Department of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Administrator Oscar G. Garin. /MP
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