PCA Regional Manager Joel Pilapil said that out of the 10 million target seedlings for replanting, about 80 percent or approximately seven to eight million coconut trees have already been planted.
The government aims to replace only 10 million coconut trees although supertyphoon Yolanda had either uprooted or sheared 16 million trees.
In the recovery program, the PCA considered proper distance between trees and available planting materials.
PCA’s four prompt Yolanda recovery and rehabilitation program include debris clearing, replanting, fertilization and inter-cropping.
Right after the typhoon, the replanting program provided 1.8 million seedlings to the areas badly affected by the typhoon.
With the scarcity in raw materials, the region gets supplies of seed nuts from other places such as PCA-operated research centers in Zamboanga and Davao, National seed production center in Cotabato, and private suppliers.
The region’s coconut processors are also now slowly rising from the devastation.
“After Yolanda, so far oil mills in Tolosa, Leyte and Baybay City are already in operations. Maybe there is a little problem in raw materials, but they are back to normal. In micro levels, farmers are already slowly going back to the normal operation of selling whole nuts, unlike before that they only sell copra (dried coconut meat),” said Pilapil.
On Nov. 8, 2013, supertyphoon Yolanda ravaged the region decreasing the number of coconut trees from 46 million to 32 million. (PNA)
JMC/SQM/MA. MERCEDES C. ARPON, LNU-INTERN/EGR
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