Nothing less than a systematic competently formulated national road map will make the imperative of intercropping between coconut trees come true. Coconut area is the largest agriculture area with the most farmers and high incidence of poverty. In spite of this, this area has been neglected over many years.
Consider the following:
According to former Science and Technology Secretary and current CAMP (Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines) chair Emil Javier, only 30 percent of 3.2 million coconut hectares are intercropped. If we allow 10 percent for spacing between trees, we still have 1.8 million hectares that are idle and can be planted with other crops.
According to former Agriculture Secretary and current co-chair of the National Water Road Map and Summit Agriculture Steering Committee William Dar, the income of coconut farmers can rise by 400 percent with intercropping. He adds: “The objective of intercropping is to increase the incomes of coconut farmers and not to displace their main source of livelihood, the coconut tree. So the next step after intercropping is to introduce value-adding to coconut farmers or cooperatives which should lead to the establishment of cottage industries in rural areas.”
Considering only improving coconut yield without intercropping benefits, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) said hybrid coconuts could yield up to 300 nuts per tree per year, instead of the current average of 46 nuts per tree. This is low compared to India’s 250 nuts, Mexico’s 300 nuts, and Brazil’s 400 nuts.
Even without improving yield per tree, intercropping by itself can get our farmers out of the poverty trap.
Below is a table comparing three types of farms: coconut intercropped with cacao, coconut only and cacao only.
The table shows that a coconut farmer can increase his income fivefold with cacao intercropping. The same increase is true for other crops like coffee. It is ironic that we import 80 percent of our coffee and cacao, instead of planting these in our idle lands with only an investment of P60,000 to create a job, as compared to P1 million per job in manufacturing. In addition to planting one crop like coffee of cacao in-between the coconut trees, one can also plant smaller trees and other trees such as lanzones, rambutan, papaya, and those measuring less than 46 meters in height.
Cash crops can also be planted alongside these trees like pineapple, corn and mungbean. With this multistory intercropping, income can rise to P300,000 per hectare from the current P2,000 per hectare.
If we have “Build, Build, Build,” we should also have “Grow, Grow, Grow.” And while “Build, Build, Build” gives us the necessary infrastructure for long-term growth, “Grow, Grow, Grow” with intercropping can give us immediate returns for our poor farmers. What we therefore need is a systematic, competently developed and nationally committed road map for intercropping between coconut trees.
A couple of years ago, when I asked why the PCA budget was cut from P4.1 billion to P1.3 billion, I was informed PCA had an extra P7 billion that it had not spent. The problem is therefore not money, but utilizing this money effectively. This can be done with a road map for intercropping between coconut trees.
In industry, they spent adequate funds to formulate good road maps. Examples are more than P30 million for electronics, P20 million for automotive, and P10 million for cement. A road map for coconut intercropping will require only about P3 million.
This road map will be a significant step in “Grow, Grow, Grow” to supplement “Build, Build, Build.”