National Coconut Week
THE coconut industry is one of the pillars of our country’s economy. Some 20 million Filipinos, including 2.5 million workers, depend on the coconut industry for their livelihood and well-being. About 2.7 million hectares of land are planted to coconut trees. The Bicol provinces, Samar, Leyte, and Quezon are the coconut-producing provinces in our country.
Coconut’s many uses explain why many call it the "Tree of Life.’’ Its trunk serves as lumber, its leaves and shell serve as raw materials for furniture and cottage industries, and the nut is a major source of fuel, oil, and medicine. Recently, carbonized coconut shells were found to have many uses – as an absorbent in industrial applications and environmental clean-up operations, including waste water treatment, air purification, the treatment of drinking water, gold recovery and purification, and production of Japanese wine sake. In the Middle East, carbonized coconut shells are used in wine processing and in desalinization to produce fresh drinking water.
Presidential Proclamation No. 142 declared the last week of August as National Coconut Week to promote public awareness of the many important contributions of the coconut industry to our people’s lives and to our country’s economy. The Philippine Coconut Authority has been assigned to lead our government’s effort to reenergize the coconut industry and make it a major pillar once more of our national economy.
The discovery of more industrial and environmental uses of coconut will surely boost the industry and benefit our rural folk. Our coconut trees are renewable and easy to propagate. There are hundreds of thousands of hectares of lands that can be planted to coconut trees. Let us utilize this bounty of nature for our benefit and progress.