Where the products come from
Look where the products come from. The many uses of the coconut.
FROM THE HUSK: coco peat, dust, fiber, twine, geotextile, fiberboard.
FROM THE SHELL: charcoal, activated carbon.
FROM THE MEAT: copra, CNO (raw coconut oil), RBD (refined, bleached and deodorized), DCN (desiccated coconut), coco meal, flakes, flour, fatty acid, fatty alcohol, esters, glycerin, macapuno, virgin coco oil.
FROM THE WATER: juice, wine, vinegar.
FROM OUTSIDE THE NUT IN THE TREE: sap sugar, wine, handicrafts, wood-based products.
FROM IN BETWEEN THE TREES: high value intercrops, cacao, coffee, livestock, honey bees that always prefer the coconut nectar with the highest intensity of Vitamin C’s.
Thirty-nine million coconut trees where these products came from are old and unproductive. Seedlings to replace these old and lost trees are inadequate. Wanted: some proceeds from the recovered coco levy funds.
from: asiabiomass.jp
So many coconut farms remain monocropped, with farmers unable to adopt new farming technologies, and the industry as a whole not able to compete globally. Inter-crops like cacao and coffee, as examples, are so much in demand everywhere and can add substantial amounts of money to the farmer’s income.
A coconut farmer earns no more than Php 10,000 per year in a one-hectare monocropped farm – a sure prescription for rural poverty. Eighty percent or 8,000 sq. m. of a typical one-hectare monocropped farm is so wastefully unutilized in much the same way that in such a situation the coconut farmer’s labor potential on a 45-day harvest cycle is also wastefully reduced to 9 days of work.
Again, wanted: a few more bucks from those recovered coco levy funds please. And not later but now. Farmers require financial assistance to improve productivity in their farms. Equally important will be the assistance in management in order to train operators and local managers to effectively transfer needed technologies to cooperatives and self-reliant teams.
Again, just consider the following: when farmers move from copra-based to whole nut mode of producing, selling the whole nut may not necessarily include the husk. Aim for low-cost relatively high-yield quick return types. Turn the husk into various fiber products.
from: ridelust.com – coconut husks
Compare the following figures (of years ago): Dust alone sells at P25/bag in Bicol. The price of a husk is P0.15 to 0.25 per kilo. Decorticate it and it becomes P5 to P7 per kilo of fiber. Twine it and you get P25 to P40 per kilo. Weave it into geo-textile and you get P100 to P150 per kilo.
These fiber products are in demand for anti-soil erosion in China, Japan, Europe, Middle East and now the Philippines. And while we are reviewing markets, just consider the following:
1.The world is going back to natural and organic farming.
2.The China market is heating up, buying and investing in almost everything. But China cannot grow coconut except, unfruitful ones, in Hainan. Therefore…
3.The US FDA announced way back in July 2003 that it was mandating all food labels to show presence and quantity of trans-fat because of its relationship to increased risk of coronary heart disease. Coconut oil is the champ of healthy oils.
4.The EU Parliament has already issued a directive that biofuels be placed on the market.
5. Japan finalized its fuel emission standards a few years ago.
6. The Kyoto Protocol is quite in effect now.
It is time we recognized the Special Gift that has been given us and act like good Stewards for our people and for the world. We need to develop the coconut industry. To date we have done very little but develop its underdevelopment.
Let eighty percent of every hectare now planted to coconut bloom further from now on with high value crops and other inter crops and economic enterprises.
In sum, let us help improve the income of coconut farmers:
1) We must help them modernize their farms, practice or adopt intercropping sub-systems to maximize the utilization of land and spread price risks to several crops – Farm Modernization;
2) We must increase domestic and international demand for coconut by developing more uses for coconut and its by-products. One of the easiest to develop is, of course, the fuel uses of coconut oil although high value products such as food, medicine and other industrial uses continue to have great potentials, as we have seen – Rural and Ecological Industrialization.
They will always go hand-in-hand: farm modernization and rural industrialization. Apply the proceeds of the coco levy funds to these areas of endeavor and by this historic correction justice will rain on earth and peace and prosperity bloom in beauty.
Need for legislative action –
Willing the legislative means to attain the socio-economic ends[1]
The Supreme Court ruled in COCOFED, et. al, vs. Republic of the Philippines, GR # 177857-58 that the coco levy funds and assets which consists primarily of the 753,848,312 San Miguel Corporation (SMC) shares and their accumulated dividends are owned by the government in trust for the coconut farmers.
It also ruled that said coco levy funds and assets are to be used exclusively for the benefit of all the coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry.
The funds are therefore public trust funds – with government as trustee for the beneficial owners who are the coconut farmers. There is dual ownership here: by government insofar as a levy is a tax and must result in funds that are public in character, and by the farmers for whose benefit and from whom government levied the tax in the first place and in a manner that made the Filipino coconut farmer the most heavily taxed citizen in all Philippine history, barring none.
However, clear as the Supreme Court decision is on the dual ownership of the levy funds, it does not provide for an administrative mechanism to ensure that the funds are managed prudently and properly as intended by law. The decision does not provide guidelines for the management and use of the coco levy funds for the benefit of the coconut industry and the coconut farmers.
This is a dangerous situation for the coconut farmers who bore the burden of the coconut levy.
In fact other sectors have started posturing to get their hands on the coconut levy funds. Worse, these “other sectors” are not even connected to the coconut industry, and the proposed use of the funds is not for the benefit of the coconut industry and the coconut farmers.
Hence, the big three (national coconut farmers’ organizations) that have now become one big confederation, said there is a great need to constitute the coconut levy funds and assets into a Coconut Industry Trust Fund (CITF) by law and provide the administrative structure, also by law, that will manage the trust funds and ensure that its use will benefit the coconut industry and the coconut farmers. That structure is proposed to be a Foundation to be called the Philippine Coconut Farmers’ Foundation (PCFF).
Purposes and Uses of the Fund
In general the fund should be used for the activities discussed above and for the following ten purposes:
1) Promote the steady, accelerated and orderly development and vertical integration of the coconut industry; right now we have a coconut anarchy and no coconut industry;
2) Develop and establish coconut based farming systems including but not limited to the establishment of model coconut farms; each hectare of coconut land has normally about 0.8 hectare more to spare for high value synergistic intercrops which must be utilized;
3) Hasten and advance industrialization in the coconut industry and the diversification and proper utilization of coconut products and by products; we should no longer be hang up on copra, an intermediate non-product, but we should rather have centers for both food and nonfood uses of the coconut’s numerous high demand products and byproducts;
4) Promote the effective utilization and marketing of coconut products and byproducts in the domestic and foreign markets and preserve the competitiveness and reliability of the country as a major producer and supplier of these products;
5) Increase production by expanding the planting and replanting program of coconut trees in strategic areas identified as having the most potential;
6) Conduct scientific researches and investigations in all areas pertaining to agricultural, industrial, marketing and socio-economic aspect of the coconut industry and encourage the participation of small farm holders in research and technology;
7) Encourage and promote the organization of coconut farmers cooperatives, associations, and organizations and provide them grants, credit and financing schemes;
8) Generate and disseminate information and communication to farmers, producers and other sectors to ensure the appreciation and adoption of appropriate technology and practices, inventions, as well as the proper awareness and correct understanding of issues and development in the coconut industry;
9)Finance the developmental/operating expenses of legitimate/recognized coconut farmer organizations including projects such as scholarships for the benefit of deserving children of the coconut fanners and the establishment of coconut seedling nurseries and the farmers planting/replanting program;
10) Finance social services for the coconut farmers for their mutual assistance, protection and relief in the form of social benefits, such as life, medical, and accident insurance coverage of the coconut farmers.
Who would be the Members/ Beneficiaries of the Foundation (PCFF)?
For purposes of determining the respective identities and addresses of coconut farmers who will be eligible to become members of the PCFF, a ground survey of coconut farmers (Ground Survey) under the supervision of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) through its Coconut Development Officers who are stationed in all municipalities of the coconut regions of the country shall be conducted and completed within two (2) years after the appointment of the first Board of Trustees of the Foundation.
Any coconut farmer may apply as a Coconut Farmer Member Beneficiary of the PCFF. A coconut farmer is a natural person who:
1 Owns and tills the coconut farm by himself and/or with the assistance of members of his family, or farm laborers;
2 Owns the coconut farm but does not till it by himself but with the assistance of farm laborers;
3. Is a lessee, usufructuary, who tills the coconut farm by himself and/or with the assistance of the farm laborers;
4. Is a mortgagee, who tills the coconut farm by himself and/or with the assistance of the farm laborers;
5 Harvests and processes the coconut product and is compensated in the form of the produce which he sells as his own; or
6. Works in the coconut farm and is compensated either in cash or in kind.
But how will the Trust Fund be created?
By law there shall be created a trust fund to be known as the Coconut Industry Development Trust Fund (CIDTF) from the funds and assets of the so-called coconut levy funds consisting of the753,848,312 CIIF Preferred SMC shares and their accumulated dividends; the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB); the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) Oil Mills; the 14 Holding Corporations; the United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corporation (COCOLIFE); and all their respective assets, subsidiaries and affiliates to the extent that the Supreme Court has ruled or may rule in other cases to be owned by the government in trust for the coconut industry and the coconut farmers, or their cash equivalent if redeemed or sold.
All of this together could be in the conservative ballpark figure of at least more than two hundred billion pesos. By law, they shall be recognized and declared anew as special trust funds with the government as trustee for the beneficial owners who are the coconut farmers. The CIDTF shall not form part of the general fund of the government and shall be used only as provided by law.
How will the Foundation be created?
Again by law, there shall be created under the office of the President the Philippine Coconut Farmers’ Foundation (PCFF), which shall manage, administer, utilize or dispose certain assets of the Coconut Industry Trust Fund (CIDTF). It shall be organized by the appointment of its 15-man Board of Trustees within 6 months from the effectivity of the proposed R.A.
Who will compose this 15-person Board? The corporate powers of the PCFF shall be vested in a Board of Trustees to be appointed by the President of the Philippines consisting of fifteen (15) trustees eight (8) of whom shall represent government sector provided that the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Administrator shall be a Trustee, and seven (7) of whom shall come from the coconut industry sector, particularly the organized farmer sub sector.
The 8-7, 51-49, government-farmer ratio is consistent in applying the dual ownership of the funds: public, yes, with sure farmer participation as guarantee for the proper stewardship of such trust funds.
The corporate powers of the PCFF shall be exercised, all business conducted and all property of the Foundation controlled and held by this Board of Trustees whose term of office will be for six years, receive no salary but board meeting per diems only, hire officers and professional management to assist them in the stewardship of these public trust funds.
The draft bill that has been the result of so much consultation in the various coconut regions nationwide seeks immediate enactment by the next Congress that must have at last solid coconut farmer representation via its party list mechanism leading the district congressmen of the various predominantly coconut districts.
This then is the need for coconut farmer representatives in congress.
So, the gardeners decided: we relaunch COCOFED Party-list for this purpose.
FINIS
[1] FYI: Earlier blogs carried the next ruminations by the Gardener on the same topic.