Cargill to rehab Visayas coconut farms

MANILA, Philippines—Cargill Philippines Inc. and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) on Wednesday announced a joint project meant for the rehabilitation of coconut farms in Leyte that Super Typhoon Yolanda ravaged in November 2013.

The project, which costs P11 million, is designed to have a total of 140,000 seedlings planted in 600 hectares of farm over a two-year period starting in the second half of 2014.

Cargill officials said in a briefing the initiative will roll out in Barangay (village) Inangatan in Tabango, Leyte.

PBSP and the company will work with the Philippine Coconut Authority and the Department of Agriculture, as well as the Visayas State University, to plant 35,000 seedlings of the fast-growing variety in 150 hectares of farms for the initial half year of implementation.

Also, these farms will be intercropped with corn to maximize the use of the land and the farmers’ time while waiting for the coconuts to be productive.

Aside from the propagation of coconut seedlings, the project will establish two 5,000-square-meter demonstration farms that will promote integrated systems.

The idea is to show that coconut farmers can also engage in the production of cash crops and other activities like fish farming and the raising of poultry and livestock on a small scale.

“We recognize the need for a long-term, holistic and sustainable program,” said Philip G. Soliven, president of Cargill Philippines.

“We hope to contribute to the rebuilding and, eventually, further developing of the livelihoods of the area’s coconut farmers,” Soliven said.

As a company that processes copra to make coconut oil (CNO), most of which is exported to Europe and the United States, Cargill will also benefit in the rehabilitation of the farms.

According to Cargill, the output of coconut-based products like CNO has dropped 13 percent year on-year in the aftermath of Yolanda. The outlook is that depressed output would go on “for the long term.”