And Its Poverty Reduction in Coconut Growing Communities’ Initiative
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THE INTERNATIONAL COCONUT GENETIC RESOURCES NETWORK (COGENT) AND ITS POVERTY REDUCTION IN COCONUT GROWING COMMUNITIES’ INITIATIVE Carlos B. Carpio1, Pons Batugal2, Rudy Coronel3, Jeffrey Olliver4 and Kanniah Jayashree5 Abstract The International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT) is a global research network organized in 1992 to improve coconut production on a sustainable basis, increase income in developing countries through improved cultivation of the coconut and efficient utilization of its products' and promote a worldwide programme for the conservation and use of coconut genetic resources. Such an international network allows member countries to share experiences, best practices and technologies more efficiently and to find solutions to common problems more effectively for the common good. COGENT has grown to 38 member countries which have been actively coordinating international research in collaboration with member countries. Priority activities include the conservation and use of coconut genetic resources through establishing an International Coconut Genetic Resource Database; encouraging and utilization of existing germplasm collection, promoting safe germplasm exchange, information and technology sharing, and trainings. In an effort to help reduce poverty in existing resource-poor coconut communities, eight developing member countries (DMCs) of the Asia-Pacific region, through the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute’s International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (IPGRI- COGENT), requested the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support a three-year project entitled “Poverty Reduction in Coconut Growing Communities'. The project will empower resource-poor coconut farmers’ and socio-economically disadvantaged women to become village-level entrepreneurs. High-yielding, adapted and high-value coconut varieties will be identified, characterized and deployed to enhance genetic diversity and products from coconut; intercrops and livestock will be diversified to increase incomes, enhance food security and improve nutrition of the rural poor. The ovemding aim is to develop sustainable, coconut-based and village-level technologies that would increase farm mcomes and promote food security in 24 rural communities in 8 countries (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Fiji Islands, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam) to help reduce poverty in these coconut growing communities. Using these successful communities as models, the project will convince individual country governments, development organizations and donors to replicate the project nationwide. With the help of county governments and donors, the project is envisioned to expand to 15 countries in 2005 and 25 countries by 2006. 1 Deputy Administrator, Philippines Coconut Authority (PCA) Quezon City, Philippines. 2 Senior Scientist, COGENT Coordinator, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 3 Country Coordinator, COGENT, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 4 COGENT Staff Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 5 COGENT Staff, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 91 1. Introduction Coconut farmers are suffering because their traditional products derived from the coconut, like copra, are currently suffering from unstable markets and decreasing international prices. As a result, the gross incomes of families who depend on it for their livelihoods average less than US $200 a year. The crop directly supports about 50 million resource-poor people. About 90 percent of the world coconut production comes from the Asian and Pacific region. In several Asia-Pacific countries, coconut contributes 15 to 50 percent of export earnings. Despite the low returns, farmers continue to grow coconut as it provides them a regular, although currently marginal source of income when fruits are harvested every 45 days. Likewise, coconut is traditionally a part of the rural food system and is a major source of nutrition for many rural communities. While there is tremendous potential to tap idle community labour, including women, to generate income from high-value coconut products and other income-generating technologies, these activities and strategies have yet to be put in place. Due to this low income, which is below the poverty line, farmers cannot afford to manage and conserve their precious diversity, nor invest more in improving coconut production, if they continued to produce the low-income raw materials like copra. There are opportunities for higher incomes in the other stages of the commodity chain such as in processing, marketing and consumption. But poor coconut farmers cannot engage in these more profitable activities because they do not have access to village-level technologies, machineries, capital and markets. COGENT's "Poverty reduction in coconut growing communities" project illustrates opportunities to overcome these constraints. Though this project, promising village-level income-generating activities are sourced worldwide, introduced in coconut growing communities, tested and their viability assessed by community members. Viable technologies, which are identified after adequate testing, are supported with five capitals to make them sustainable, namely the natural, physical, social, financial and human capitals that are explained below. Previous COGENT research projects demonstrated that incomes in poor growing coconut communities can be increased from five to ten times through a four-pronged strategy: 1) Increase coconut yields by deploying high-yielding and adapted varieties; 2) Increase incomes through the production and marketing of high-value coconut products from the kernel, husk, shell, water, wood and leaves; 3) Enhance food security and total farm productivity through intercropping with cash and food security crops; and 4) Enhance income and nutrition through livestock/fodder production. However, the previous research projects also identified technical, institutional and market constraints that hinder the effective utilization of research results to benefit the poor, namely: 1) Affordable processing equipment, technological know-how and extension materials are not readily available from local sources and especially from other countries; and coconut growing communities are not receiving adequate support in this regard from government agencies; 2) Coconut growing communities are not organized and there is a need to strengthen leadership and increase participation of community members and women in income generating projects; 3) Lack of trained researchers and extension officers and inadequate collaborative linkages between these two groups and with farmers to source, introduce, adapt and sustain income-generating technologies; 92 4) Lack of access to high-yielding varieties and good-quality planting materials in adequate numbers and at affordable cost; 5) Lack of affordable credit to support the application of promismg socioeconomic interventions; and 6) Lack of markets for small volume of products and weak access to market information and market linkages. 2. The poverty reduction in coconut growing communities proJect The implementing agencies of the initial project are Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI); Peekay Tree Crop Development Foundation (PK Tree) and the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), India; Coconut Research Institute (CRI), Sn Lanka; Indonesia Centre for Estate Crops Research and Development (ICERD), Indonesia; Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Philippines; Oil Plants Institute (OPI), Vietnam; Ministry of Agriculture, Sugar and Land Resettlement (MASLR), Fiji; and Cocoa and Coconut Institute (CCI), Papua New Guinea. The locally based National Agricultural Research System (NARS) have adopted three project sites each as their research and extension service areas. The project is implemented by the NARS and extension service using participatory approach involving farmers and women. The project has five components which are, (1) capacity building through the development of community based organizations (CBOs) and training of farmers, women members, research and extension officers; (2) developing simple equipment, pilot production and marketing of high-value products for CBOs and women; (3) introduction of promising intercropping and livestock/fodder production technologies to augment farm incomes and food security; (4) development of community-managed income-generating coconut nursenes and deployment and conservation of promising selected local and introduced coconut varieties; and (5) dissemination and promotion of research results. At the community level, the project is implemented by the CBOs, which have been trained and empowered to manage and make decisions. To identify efficient village level income-generating technologies, COGENT documented these technologies and their income-earning level/profitability levels and these served as the basis for identifying promising technologies to be tested in the eight countries. Examples of the potential of high-value products are shown in Tables 1-3 below. Table 1. High-value coconut products from Vietnam Net income/unit/person/ No. Products Household (USS) 1 Handicraft from Coconut Shells 34.50/ person/ month 2 Handicraft from Coconut Wood 2.33/person/day 3 Coconut Shell Charcoal 62.10/person/month 4 Coconut Midrib Baskets 1,24/person/day 5 Coconut Single Ropes (Yams) 1.14/person/day 6 Coconut Coir Tapes 1.20/person/day 7 Door Mats from Coir Fiber 1.20/person/day 8 Snow Mats 1.00/person/day 9 Geotextile 1.40/person/day 10 Coconut Fiber Panel 11 Coconut Candies 1.30/person/day