Coconut farmers are among the poorest farmers due to centuries of what I call “copra-colonization,” but they can be liberated through coconut technological breakthroughs if funds from the much-awaited P105-billion coconut-levy trust fund will be used for this purpose.
“Kokonat over coconuts?” For centuries, coconuts were the “tree of life,” but colonial trade transformed the industry into a lopsided extractive system sucking the sap of the local economy as farmers remain poor, producing only copra and earning P10,000 to P20,000 per hectare per year.
Coconut farmers are poor because no investments were made to help them increase yields and develop technologies, products and markets. We used to be the world’s No. 1 copra producer, but India and Indonesia have surpassed us. Worse, our yields are down to 46 nuts per tree/year, below India’s 250 nuts, Mexico’s 300 nuts and Brazil’s 400 nuts, said former Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
Farmers harvest copra every 45 days and do nothing productive in-between. We can imagine the magnitude of the problem when multiplied by 3.4 million hectares and 3.5 million farmers (now down to 3 million aging farmers as their kids moved to the concrete jungles of the cities).
Unfortunately, investments in replanting and diversification remained meager, which translated to stingy little income (kokonat in Pilipino). The P105-billion coco fund is seen bringing welcome relief, but at P5 billion yearly releases over 21 years, equivalent to P1,470/hectare a year, no massive impact is expected. If done in phases, the last one on the list will wait for two decades. Moreover, funds are mostly invested in T-bills, which may show financial growth, but will not mean boosting job creation.
Cracking the “coconut of poverty.” Records obtained from the Philippine Coconut Authority’s Zamboanga Research Center show that a meager investment of P2,400 in micro-nutrients increases net income from P20,000 to P57,600 per hectare/year. Adding a one-time hybrid technology investment of P2,500 increases net income to P125,100 per hectare. This could help us start wiping out poverty.
Although 70 percent of coconut trees are now senile, yields can still go up if trees are surrounded by hybrid replantings, fertilized and irrigated. Owing to wide spacing in-between trees, some 2 million hectares are available for massive coconut replanting and intercropping, Dar said. Livestock and poultry can be added.
In fact, 10 trees can already provide a year’s supply of coco- milk for a family of seven, thus helping eliminate hunger, said Jun Castillo, who operates the chain of Coco Houses selling scores of coco by-products. His ice cream outlets use coco-nectar, not dairy milk.
P3M-P10M income per hectare a year? Castillo said farmers can potentially earn as much as P3 million to P10 million per hectare, if they are organized and funded properly.
For him, traditional copra only brought poverty. The process of making copra is wasteful, as almost 99 percent of coco water is thrown away. This, he said, is more nutritious than fresh (buko) coco water. Coco water can also be boiled to produce “coco-not-soy” sauce and coco “patis.”
Copra, often dried under the sun and exposed to parasites and carcinogenic aflatoxin, is sold to oil mills and refined and bleached to produce oil. Copra, coco oil and desiccated coconut are also exported and processed abroad for their higher multibillion-dollar value in coco chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and confectioneries.
The bigger local business is in “sweet coconut nectar” from the sap of flowering coconut seeds, similar to how tuba (coconut wine) is harvested, while still allowing nuts to mature. Two liters of nectar can be produced per tree a day. At farm-gate prices of P25 per 350 ml of nectar, or P75/liter, a farmer producing 1 liter per tree at 100 trees/hectare can earn P7,500/day or P225,000/month or P2.7 million a year. And that’s from raw nectar alone, which is retailed at P50 to P60 per 350 ml, although high-end markets can pay more.
Some raw nectar are processed into coco “honey” or coco sugar. Healthy coco sugar, priced at P200/kilo at farm gate, is produced by boiling and evaporating 85 percent of water, leaving behind 15-percent sugar.
There are numerous other products like Virgin Coconut Oil and nondairy coco cream from nectar.
Go loco with “coco beauty?” Dr. Jay La Madrid, for one, made techno-breakthroughs and is developing health and beauty products like soap, lotion, shampoo and balms that are rich in coco plant stem cells and protein extracts, which are effective in curing skin diseases like psoriasis, eczema, acne, pimples, ringworm, fungal infections, burns, small cuts and wounds.
After a sophisticated process, the coconut proteins and plant stem cells can balance body and skin pH levels, thus enhancing the natural healing process. They help regenerate cells that need repair, thus delaying the aging process.
Helping Dr. La Madrid develop the market for his products are friends Convince Navales and Richie Cuneta-Marquez, who believe the well-scented and high-heeled crowd can go loco over coco for beauty.
Whatever products are developed, we need to get our act together over coco, otherwise the industry again will go loco.
E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com