Bamboo-Coconut Project - Famy, Laguna...

One long-term project we have started is the establishment of a bamboo-coconut farm in a 6-hectare property we own in Famy, Laguna.

The property is not accessible by road, and is about a 30-minute upward trek.

This was previously used to house my cattle, but as we have distributed most via the "pa-iwi"system, it is now free for other use.

Bamboo, now called "green gold", was selected as we expect a very big demand for bamboo poles especially as most of the coconut farms are being cut-down for lumber. Further, on a sustainability point of view, bamboo wins out over mahogany, as bamboo poles can be harvested without killing the plant.

The problem we are experiencing, though, is the availability of established planting materials. We have checked with MFI, and their bamboo nursery is still not that mature to service our needs.

Coconut was selected as an inter-crop to bamboo as it grows higher than most bamboo species but does no occupy too much canopy space. Further, like bamboo the sustainable nature of harvesting "buko" is important in the selection of this inter-crop.

Similar to the acquisition of good bamboo planting materials, good coconut planting materials are surprisingly quite difficult to get. One has to order from PCA Zamboanga to get these.

An alternative we are looking at is the planting of certified embryo-cultured macapuno coconut, but the price of the planting materials, P600 per seedling last time we checked, is very restrictive.

Commercial operations is expected to start from year 5 onwards. To jump-start this venture, we planted close to 1,200 saba bananas, which we expect to start harvesting from by the end of this year.

We have not studied the financials of this yet, and the income expected is not high, but the sustainable nature of the business makes this venture very appealing.