Much has been written about what to do with those areas affected by Super Typhoon “Yolanda.” While relief operations are winding up, the next phase of the effort is rehabilitation.

Just exactly what does rehabilitation mean? Is it to bring back where things were before the catastrophe? If that is what it means, then we are missing the whole point.

Leyte and Samar Islands include the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Western Samar. The areas severely affected by Yolanda are some towns and cities in Eastern Samar and Leyte. The northern part of Leyte has been spared as well as Southern Leyte.

Region VIII, known as Eastern Visayas, includes all the above plus the province of Biliran. As a whole, the region is the second poorest in the Philippines with 45.2 percent poverty incidence. The poorest being the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 55.5 percent. (National average is 25.2 percent as of 2012, the latest figures available.)

If such is the case even before Yolanda (and worse now), what this region needs is a development strategy. I can understand why ARMM up to now is so under-developed because of its peace and order situation.  But I cannot figure out why Eastern Visayas is in such a dire strait.

Since Yolanda struck, I have been to Tacloban three times. First was in February to meet a group that is interested to adopt the Farm Business School. (The Farm Business School is a project of the Management Association of the Philippines and I am its Project Manager.) The second was in February on my way to Baybay to recruit scholars for the Youth Empowerment through Sustainability (YES) Program of the Agricultural Training Institute. These scholars will study under the Diploma in Farm Business Management or the Diploma in Entrepreneurship offered by the Farm Business Schools. My third trip was in April to finalize the arrangement for the establishment of the Paraclete Farm Business School in Tacloban City. A batch of 35 scholars for the YES Program will be sent to this school come June.

These trips gave me more opportunity to see the countryside and to meet people in Leyte. I see a lot of potentials for developing this part of the Philippines. I was struck how important the coconut industry is in Leyte. One can see mountains and plains practically covered by coconut trees. I have a soft heart for the coconut farmers since they supported me for my college education as a Coconut Industry Fund Scholar. At that time, it was officially called President Ferdinand E. Marcos Coconut Industry Fund Scholarship Program. However, we were popularly known as COCOFED Scholars.

Help for Leyte and Samar coconut farmers

In my last trip while walking around the village where the future Paraclete Farm Business School will be established, I met a group of about 25 people. Fifteen of them were carrying brand new chain saws. They were part of a team deployed by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to cut dead and fallen coconut trees and turn them to lumber. It’s a free service given to coconut farmers so they can make use of the lumber to rebuild their homes and sell the extra for cash income. I should commend DA Secretary Proceso Alcala and PCA Administrator Euclides Forbes for initiating such a meaningful project. I was also informed that PCA is distributing seedlings of high-yielding coconut varieties so farmers can replant.

Developing Leyte and Samar Islands require more than just replanting coconuts. I still think that coconut is one of the more typhoon-suited crops to grow, while it is true that many coconut trees were uprooted (estimated to be about 30 percent) because of the supertyphoon. Just to give you an idea how strong that typhoon was. I have seen a number of cement electric posts practically cut in half. So for the 70 percent of coconut trees remaining standing shows you how resilient coconuts are. Right after Yolanda struck, we saw pictures of coconut trees like candle sticks because leaves were blown off.  Just three months after when I went to Tacloban in January, I saw new leaves coming out as if these trees were seeing a new dawn.

And I truly hope that this calamity will usher a new dawn for Leyte and Samar’s economic development. The coconut industry will play an important role in this effort if we play it right.

Three Cs for a coconut industry-led development

Let me state this very clearly. Coconut farmers will always be poor if they just rely on the nuts. But they can be middle class if they will have other agricultural enterprises under the coconut trees. What’s the proof that this is doable?

Why is it that coconut farmers in Batangas and Cavite have money? They tell you they have one hectare of coconuts, one hectare of coffee, one hectare of pineapples, and one hectare of vegetables. Some even have extras like a piggery or some heads of cattle for fattening in the same farm. All within a hectare of land!

So the key for lifting our coconut farmers out of poverty is by multicropping or what I referred to as “condominium farming.” Maximize the use of the land and labor of the farming family by putting other things under the shade of the coconut trees. Much more income can be derived if such a farming system can be integrated. Meaning, the waste of one farm enterprise can be used as an input for the other. For example, manure from the pigs and cattle can be mixed with agricultural wastes like grasses and trimmings and make use of these as feed for vermiculture. Bingo!  The farmer can have the best organic fertilizer in the world from vermicasts. More income can be earned from organic agriculture.

My three Cs for making coconut farmers rich (or at least middle class) are: Coffee, cacao, cows or carabaos.

Coffee used to be a major export earner for the Philippines. We have done it in the past. Why can’t we do it again? Today we import almost 70 percent of our domestic consumption from Vietnam and Indonesia. This is a multibillion extra income for our coconut farmers if we can assist them to do it right.

Cacao is another money-maker. Major players of the world’s cacao trade are here of late because they see a big potential for this crop in the country. Growing up in my hometown, now Tanjay City, I used to enjoy harvesting cacao pods in our backyard and gnaw the flesh covering the seeds. Of course, our tablea is best for making chocolate “A” or chocolate “E” to accompany our budbud and mango. I don’t have the Philippines’ consumption of chocolate but my estimate is that we import much of what we consume. Like coffee, cacao also has a big export market.

Cows and/or carabaos are companion farm enterprise under coconut trees. A farming family, especially the wife and kids, can easily take care of a few heads of cows and/or carabaos for milk production. We import almost 98 percent of our dairy products. They say that dairy cows do well in temperate countries. My answer is yes but technology of late has made it possible to make cow dairy farming competitive in a tropical setting. Thailand now produces much of its milk requirements. Thanks to this technology. On the other hand, carabaos do well in tropical setting. There is a breed of carabaos that can produce a good amount of milk that makes carabaos dairy farming a viable farm business. Proof of this is an entrepreneur, Danilo Fausto, of Talavera, Nueva Ecija. He has proven that this can be done profitably in the Philippines.

The bottom-line is that such programs work. We just have to provide a holistic strategy to implement it. It’s about time our government people, private sector, and donors as well, think out of the box. There is more to coconut farming than just the nuts. There is HOPE for our coconut farmers, especially those in Leyte and Samar, if some money for rehabilitation can be spent for such a program described here.

(This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines. The author is a member of the MAP Agribusiness and Countryside Development Committee, the Project Manager for MAP’s Farm Business School project and the Dean of the MFI Farm Business School. Feedback at <[email protected]>  and <[email protected]>. For previous articles, please visit www.map.org.ph)