Integrated production of both milk and the sweet aromatic young coconuts increases cocoland productivity
ACCORDING to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Philippines has one of the lowest farm productivities in the ASEAN at US$350, as compared to US$1,050 for Thailand, and US$1,600 for Malaysia.
Farm productivity is a measure of income/ha per year and is a determinant of the level of poverty and prosperity. Lower farm productivity brings higher incidence of poverty.
Among the croplands in the country which give very low farm productivity are the cocolands. Almost 1/3 of the Philippine cultivated lands is grown to coconut trees now estimated at 3.56 million hectares. Approximately, 600,000 ha of these cocolands are grown to unproductive tall and senile coconut trees protected by a poverty insensitive law which prohibits their cuttings. The law is intended to preserve a national heritage – coconut. This law is now a disgrace to the country as these tall unproductive coco trees become living monuments showing to the world the backwardness of this segment of Philippine agriculture.
Agriculture is a tool to produce food – abundant food to transform farmers from poverty to prosperity. Yet, the continued retention of these tall unproductive coconut trees of decreasing farm productivity is creating increasing poverty. To preserve a heritage is correct, but the process is not correct, as it ends in increasing poverty. The problem of low coconut productivity is now compounded by the low price of vegetable oil in the world market pulling down the price of copra at a farmgate price of less than R25/ kg. This gives coconut farmers a net income of less than R20,000/ ha per year. The government should make these cocolands productive following the strategies used in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam in plantation crops like coconut. For example, the Malaysian government provides farmers financial cash incentives to cut oil palm trees of decreasing productivity at 25 years and above. In addition, the government provides the farmers with oil palm seedlings for free of early maturing and high yielding oil palm hybrid for replanting to ensure increasing land productivity. Moreover, the government provides farmers with resources to make oil palms grow fast and mature early in three years. Poverty in rural Malaysia is less than 3%, while in the Philippines, it is almost 30%. Malaysia does not provide the poor with expensive “pantawid cash money”. Instead, it helps farmers in increasing farm productivity to overcome poverty.
Using the Malaysian strategy, the Philippine government should provide cash incentive to farmers to cut these tall unproductive coconut trees. It should also provide the farmers with free seedlings of high yielding coconut hybrids for replanting, and added cash for farm maintenance during the immature stage of the crop. This should require the government to mass produce hybrid coconut seedlings for mass distribution and increase in yield.
In India, the increasing planting of coconut hybrids in recent years drastically increased the national average yield of coconut to 10,117 nuts/ha per year compared to the Philippines’ average of 4,101 nuts/ha per year. Now is the best time for the government to help farmers cut and replant these tall trees when the price of the coconut oil is very low. Years will come when the price of vegetable oil will go up and the replanted coconut hybrids will become very productive to bring prosperity to the coconut farmers. The younger and shorter coconut trees should be integrated with other crops and livestock to increase farm
productivity.
LIVESTOCK INTEGRATION INCREASES COCOLAND PRODUCTIVITY Among the many ways to increase cocoland productivity is the integration of livestock, like dairy cows, and goats for milk production. On this aspect, Malaysia developed a good model in oil palm which is also applicable to coconut. According to the National Dairy Authority (NDA), Philippines produces roughly 5% of its domestic milk requirement, hence the need to produce more. The cocoland productivity can be further increased if the integration is carried out using high yielding coconut hybrids like “Matag” – the high yielding variety producing young, sweet, and aromatic nuts. Such integration produces market-driven and high value products like milk for domestic market, coco sugar, and young, sweet, and aromatic nuts for the international market. The integration of livestock in cocolands becomes highly compatible by using emerging technologies which include the following:
1. Replacing cocograsslands and brushlands with easy to establish, very productive, palatable, and highly nutritious forage crops. These forage crops include Packhong napier grass, trichantera, mombasa, mulato, indigofera, rensonii, etc.
2. Using the cut and carry technique of feeding livestock raised in confinement to increase the forage carrying capacity of cocolands.
3. Using new breeds of cattle and goats which are suitable for coco livestock integration. Take the case of the two projects: the dairy cattle of Lao Integrated Farms, Inc., and the dairy goat of Triple P Farms and Nursery, as examples.
THE LAO’S DAIRY CATTLE PROJECT It is one of the newest projects of Benjamin Lao, the president and CEO of the popular Lao Integrated Farms, Inc. The farm, situated at the foot of Mt. Apo in Barangay Eman, Bansalan, Davao del Sur, is a favorite agro-tourism destination in Southern Mindanao. Lao produces organic coco sugar and other coconut high-value products, as well as durian, lanzones, and mangosteen fruits, native chicken, dairy goats, high-value vegetables, etc. His farm is an accredited tourism destination by the Department of Tourism. Its organic products are recommended by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In November 2017, Lao availed of five pregnant dairy cows from the National Dairy Authority (NDA) through its cattle dispersal program. This was after he complied with the agency’s requirements, namely: (1) dairy barn of 12 x15 m and, (2) productive forage pasture of over 2 ha, mostly utilizing vacant areas between the rows of coconut trees for coco sugar production (Fig 1). These forage crops consist of Packhong napier, indigofera, etc.
Since he was then engaged in dairy goat farming, he just