Atty. Joey Lina
I would like to share the insights of former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor, chairman of the Federation of Free Farmers, about the predicament of the nation’s coconut farmers who remain poor despite the Coco Levy Fund worth billions of pesos that’s supposed to help them.
In an article titled “Can UCPB, Land Bank and Coco Levy Fund meet credit needs of Coconut Farmers?” which Montemayor co-wrote with Edgardo C. Amistad, former president of the UCPB-CIIF Finance and Development Corporation, answers can be found to questions troubling the coconut industry.
Foremost among them are: How come coco farmers hardly benefitted from the fund established for them four decades ago? What ought to be done now to improve their plight and boost the coconut industry?