SOME 3.5-million coconut farmers will earn more from intercropping with the Senate pushing for a bigger allocation for the planting strategy next year.
Senator Cynthia Villar, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Food, said a study shows that farmers earn only P50 a day from planting coconuts while intercropping with cacao and coffee can increase their income to as much as P350 a day.
“If the goal is to bring down the poverty index from 22 percent to 15 percent by 2022, we should implement programs that will increase the income of coconut farmers, who are among our country’s poorest,” Villar said.
Villar said the P13-million budget for the Coconut Intercropping Project which covers only the planting of bananas in 2,000 hectares in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is not enough.
This prompted the Philippine Coconut Authority to draw up an allocation of P200 million for intercropping with cacao and coffee in new areas.