Pests destroy coconut trees in Batangas

TANAUAN CITY—She used to harvest 4,000 coconuts and 200 kilos of macapuno and buko each month, earning P15,000 and above from her 2.5 hectares of farm in Barangay Balele but that was before the coconut scale insects attacked and destroyed her farm.

Describing how her coconut trees were cut and burned since the pests attacked her farm, Crisanta Matira, 64, became emotional when she said that apart from deriving income from the farm, one of the cut trees held a sentimental value for her.

“My mother used to pawn that tree for P5 so I could have allowance for school,” she said.

Ginette Segismundo, Batangas provincial information officer, said the coconut pests affected the two cities of Tanauan and Lipa and the eight municipalities of Calaca, Lemery, Sto. Tomas, Malvar, Agoncillo, Talisay, Laurel and Balete. More than 138,800 coconut trees in 1,268 hectares were damaged, taking away the source of livelihood of 1,286 coconut farmers.

“I grew up with those coconut trees,” said Matira.

She said the pests started attacking two of her 300 trees in 2009 and she was able to control them by pruning the affected trees. After six months, the pests returned and devastated almost half of her coconut farm. By this year, nothing is left of the trees.

The coconut scale makes the green leaves turn yellow, the fruits become sour and the trunk’s smell go foul. The coconut farm owners’ products were also banned in the markets of San Pablo, Laguna and Manila because of the sour taste.

Matira, a mother of three whose husband suffered a stroke in 2011, said she could no longer earn as much as before. Instead of crying though, she started planting other fruit-bearing trees on the farm such as jackfruit and papaya.

It takes 15 years for a coconut to bear fruit and its life span is from 100 to 200 years.

Batangas Rep. Nelson “Sonny”  Collantes (3rd district) called the attention of the city and town mayors affected to declare a state of calamity due to the pests devastating the area. He said Tanauan City was the worst hit by the pests.

Lawyer Herminigildo Trinidad Jr., city administrator for Tanauan, said that nearly half or 23 of 48 villages in Tanauan were affected and Balele was the worst hit.

Ariel Bathan, agriculturist and officer in charge of the Tanauan Agriculture Office, said they have requested banana oil from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) which would be sprayed on the affected trees. He added rain is a big factor in reducing the population of the pests.

Apolinario Malabanan, village chair of Balele, said that coconut farming is the main source of livelihood of his covillagers, most them farmers and harvesters of the nuts. Balele has a population of more than 7,000 while coconut farm owners number around 100.

Since the pests attacked in 2009, villagers who used to benefit from the coconuts had shifted to factory and office work, gone abroad or planted other crops.

Domiciano Amutan, village agriculture chief in Balele, said that when he asked for seedlings from the PCA, he distributed 10,000 pieces to the residents with each beneficiary getting 150 pieces.

He said that when the calamity is over they would resume planting coconut because of the tree’s usefulness and long life span and the next generations could still benefit from this so-called tree of life.

Malabanan and Amutan said that they were just waiting for the go-signal of the PCA for the simultaneous pruning of the coconut trees in all the affected cities and towns in Batangas.

Officials and coconut farm owners believed the devastation was brought about by climate change.

Alicia Cabrera, agriculturist for Calaca town, said that six of the town’s 34 villages were hit by the pests that affected the 14 hectares owned by eight farmers.

“Right now, we are disseminating information on how to control the pests which is to cut and burn the trees affected,” she said.

But Trinidad and Cabrera both said that it’s not yet time to declare a state of calamity in their areas.

Trinidad said “we could not just use up all our funds for that” while Cabrera said the number of the villages affected did not reach the percentage needed in order to declare the state of calamity.