Coconut industry in northern Cebu may take 3-5 years to fully recover

It will take roughly three to five years before the coconut industry in typhoon-devastated northern Cebu to recover, according to Philippine Coconut Authority Central Visayas.

PCA Regional Manager Dennis Andres yesterday told reporters in the monthly post-Yolanda assessment at the Central Command that region-7 lost 26 percent of its coconut production when the super typhoon came last November.

In total, there were 1,411,698 coconut trees affected by Yolanda paralyzing the livelihood of 46,921 farmers.

Of the 1.4 million affected coconut trees, 1,233,725 sustained slight to moderate damage while 177,973 were categorized as severe to total damage.

Also, of the 12 towns that reported damage to their coconut trees, Daanbantayan got the most number of trees totally devastated by the strongest typhoon in recent history reaching a total of 50,225 affecting 3,317 farmers.

Nearby San Remegio town also reported major damage with a total of 33,800 totally damaged trees with 3,607 affected farmers. The town of Medellin ranked third with 26,303 totally damaged coconut trees affecting 1,504 farmers.

Camotes Island had a total of 19,000 totally destroyed trees with 10,159 farmers affected while Bantayan Island has 17,000 destroyed coconut trees with 4,403 farmers affected.

Andres shared that PCA has four ongoing projects, as part of the rehabilitation efforts of the agency.

These include debris management, replanting, fertilization, and intercropping.

Andres advised coconut farmers to replant tall varieties of coconut as opposed to dwarf for durability, although he cautioned that harvest will take longer with tall coconuts than the other one.

The PCA official stressed his admiration for the resilience and initiative of affected farmers from Northern Cebu.