We want our coconut trees to stay alive…and so does Senator Cynthia A. Villar, chair of the Senate Agriculture and Food Committee.
“Villar has called on the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to immediately rehabilitate “dying” coconut trees in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon) area. This is because they’ve been attacked by the coconut scale insect (CSI),” reports Macon Ramos-Araneta in Manila Standard Today.
The infestation is bad news to about 300,000 farmers in Calabarzon, who are now at risk of losing their livelihood.
According to the report, Villar told Erlene Manohar, PCA Region V in charge, to prioritize controlling the spread of the pest.
The report cited PCA Administrator lawyer Euclides Forbes, who revealed that “at present, 1,034,421 of the 58,441,505 bearing and non-bearing coconut trees are infested with CSI.”
This is a very serious issue, as “the coconut industry provides employment to an estimated 25 million Filipinos or 40 percent of the national labor force.”
Photo from MorgueFile
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