TONEE DESPOJO/CDN FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) on Wednesday announced that it plans to break the record of most trees planted in an hour.
“Mindanao will be ready to break the record of India in planting the number of trees in an hour,” MinDA chairperson Luwalhati Antonino said during a Palace briefing.
“India has a record of 1.9 million trees planted in one hour and we aim to plant 4.6 million trees in an hour on September 26,” she explained.
One million of the trees to be planted will be cacao to help promote the cacao industry in the region.
Antonino said the supply of cacao in the world market is diminishing, giving Mindanao the opportunity to become a major supplier.
“It’s only in the ‘60s when we started planting banana, and now we are one of the major suppliers of banana, and we intend to do that with cacao as well,” she said.
She said they plan to intercrop the cacao among coconut trees, which already cover two million hectares of land.
“Even one percent alone—five percent alone of the total hectares of coconut will mean 100,000 hectares of cacao and that will have a big share in the market already, and besides, it will create 1,000 jobs for Mindanao people,” Antonino said.
In an earlier release, MinDA said it would tap 185,440 people for the event. Among those who will participate are employees of MinDA, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, people’s organizations, civil society groups and other government agencies.
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