An economic evaluation of the cultural and management practices of coconut farms in the Philippines

Abstract

The object of this study is to analyse data gathered from 320 coconut farms in the 23 leading coconut provinces of the Philippines. The information obtained was for the crop-year 1970. Following an Introduction and a general description of the coconut industry in Chapter 2, the aims and objects of the study are set out in detail in Chapter 3, which also discusses the research methodology. Chapter 4 sets out data on farm size, coconut area, number of palms per hectare, the age structure of palms and productivity. It is shown that farms averaged 6.2 hectares in total farm area of which 4.1 hectares was devoted to coconuts. On average there were 141 palms planted to a hectare of coconut land, 102 of which were bearing and 37 were non-bearing. It is concluded that there is an inverse relationship between the area devoted to coconuts and the number of palms per hectare, and yield in nuts per hectare. Although the average age of coconut palms was 28 years, 30 per cent were above 50 years, suggesting that substantial replanting will be necessary in some areas. The average production in a crop-year was 10,240 nuts per farm (3,067 nuts per hectare) or 2,367 kilograms of copra per farm (577 kilograms per hectare), with the average palm yieldin 31 nuts per year. Copra recovery per 1,000 nuts was 237 kilograms of copra or roughly 4 nuts to a kilogram of copra. Sixty-seven per cent of the copra producers dried their copra with the native kiln (tapahan), a method which often produces unevenly dried and sooty copra. Chapter 5 shows that coconut plantation maintenance was mostly cleaning brush and weeds but that horticultural practices which could have augmented the total production, like cultivation, fertilizing, controlling of pests and diseases were not common. On average, it took 18 man-days to accomplish all the field operations from plantation maintenance to processing of nuts into copra on a hectare of coconut land. In Chapter 6, variations in the yield of nuts per hectare are discussed in terms of the number of palms per hectare, the proportion of bearing palms per hectare, and the number of nuts produced per palm. Chapter 7 shows that most farmers interviewed were owneroperators. However, part-owners operated the majority of palms per hectare while tenants operated the largest area in terms of coconut land. Share-tenancy arrangements varied from the landlord providing only the land and the tenant all other inputs, to the landlord providing a wide range of inputs, including labour. The proportion of gross receipts going to the tenant varying roughly according to the proportion of inputs he supplies. Chapter 8 shows that the central bodega buyer was the common market outlet of the copra producer. Marketing and credit aspects of coconut production are briefly discussed. Chapter 9 contains recommendations as to how the coconut farmer might increase the production of his coconut farm and ultimately the incomes that can be derived from coconut farming. Show more