Mindanao as “palm oil hub” threatens the island’s coconut industry

THE recent news article citing Mindanao by various stakeholders as “oil palm hub” poses a great threat to the coconut industry, one of the island’s major export products, according to the Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), a research and advocacy organization based in Davao City.

AFRIM expresses apprehension on the targeted thousands of hectares of lands to be planted with oil palm after the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) disclosed that around 900,000 hectares have been identified as suitable for oil palm production with around 177,000 hectares already under negotiation. Based on the report, most lands targeted are in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the Caraga region.

In a parallel move, businessman Manuel Pangilinan of First Pacific Oil Co. Ltd. is considering developing 30,000 hectares of land in Davao Oriental for oil palm production and processing. This province, which suffered Typhoon Pablo’s wrath in December 2012, especially the east coast where majority of coconut farmers are, has been the top producer of coconut for years, producing 1,046,224 metric tons last 2011.

These moves toward massive oil palm plantations in Mindanao may result to the ultimate demise of the coconut industry where three million of coconut farmers across the country rely on and majority is in Mindanao. Instead of making a new investment plan, AFRIM poses a challenge to the government to shift its focus on maximizing the potential of the existing coconut industry in the island. Providing adequate support to coconut farmers (i.e. capacity building on planting food crops, product value adding) that they will not rely solely on copra will result to increased income for the benefit of small farmers. Also, recent figures show that the global demand for coconut oil, although fluctuating at times, overall has remained constant. In the case of the Philippines, however, coconut production has been decreasing for the past five years.

Aside from adverse environmental impacts (i.e. loss of biodiversity, changes in land, forest and water resources), social problems and conflicts can arise within and among communities (especially in ancestral domains), between investors and small farmers due to onerous contracts that can result to massive debts and land dispossession on the part of the farmers, based on years of AFRIM’s research on oil palm. Farmers are usually enticed to the short-term financial returns offered by big plantation companies due to limited income sources and economic opportunities in the rural areas.

AFRIM further observes that the coconut industry has long been neglected in terms of support services, budget allocation and policy support to revitalize this so-called “sunset industry”. Diversification of coconut products and not solely relying on coconut oil for exports can maximize its market potential. At the community level, AFRIM knows that this is possible since its coconut-producing partner people’s organization in Davao Oriental has already started to produce energy drink and wine from coconut.

Although AFRIM welcomes any effort to bring much-needed investments to the povertystricken provinces of Mindanao, the organization urgently calls on the government to bring out the best of the coconut industry. AFRIM hopes that the Pablo-devastated coconut provinces will not be converted into oil palm plantations. Instead, replanting of new coconut trees and providing seedlings for inter-cropping is seen as a better alternative to rehabilitate the coconut farms and bring sunshine once more to Mindanao’s coconut industry. Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), Inc. (http://www.afrim.org.ph) Door 7, Six Angels Bldg | Camia corner Jasmin Streets, Juna Subdivision, Matina Davao City, Philippines