Koronadal City – a first-class town in North Cotabato province has built a brick factory that uses coconut waste materials.

Mayor Joselito F Pinol of M’lang said recently in his weekly radio program aired over the Catholic Church-run dxND-AM in Kidapawan City that the brick factory, along with a coconut mechanical dryer, is part of the P10 million multi-purpose project to be built within the near term in M´lang town.

A P1.9 million-worth coconut nursery will also be established in M´lang, funded by the Coconut Industry Investment Fund.

Of the P1.9 million approved budget, P250,000 had been recently released to the municipality enough to jumpstart the nursery project. Mr. Pinol said 100,000 coconut seedlings will be initially planted in the coconut nursery, which will also benefit the neighboring towns. One thousand coconut seedlings, at the most, can be planted to a one hectare land.

Early this year, the second congressional district of Cotabato also received a P20 million fund for the development of coconut industry, through the Department of Agriculture and partner coconut milling from Granexport Manufacturing Corp. To be released within the first quarter this year, the fund will be used to establish more coconut nurseries particularly in the identified pilot towns, namely: of M´lang, Magpet and Arakan.

Executive Order No. 210 order the establishment of coconut nurseries from the provincial to barangay level, to be carried out by Philippine Coconut Authority, in coordination with the Agriculture Department, local government units and accredited coconut farmer organization, among others.

Hybrid coconut is one of the four major products given priority by the Cotabato provincial government, along with saba banana, oil palm and rubber. With about 25,000 hectares planted to coconut, the provincial government is eyeing expansion with assistance from the Philippine Coconut Authority, which part from providing coconut seedlings to be distributed to the farmers will also provide technical assistance for the development of barangay nurseries.

The mayor also announced that half-a-million peso livelihood fund to be used for the training program of the informal sector in driftwood- and bamboo-craft making.

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