Lampung farmers fell coconut trees for money

Lampung farmers fell coconut trees for money

By M. Tohamaksun

BANDAR LAMPUNG, Lampung (Antara): Wood from coconut trees is gaining a high commercial value and rural people are increasingly engaged in felling the trees, although in many cases, the trees are still productive.

The monetary crisis and a failure of rice crops have prompted more and more villagers to resort to coconut tree felling as their means of livelihood. It is an easy way to earn money. Three coconut tree trunks, for example, will make one cubic meter wood, which is usually priced at Rp 110,000 (US$11) if the quality is good.

In the local markets, one can easily overhear housewives complaining of the high price of coconuts. On average, the price of a coconut has doubled.

The spokesperson for the Lampung plantation agency, Zainal Abidin, quoting the agency's head, Tibrizi Asmarantaka, admitted recently that certain people have been engaged in felling coconut trees and selling the trunks.

"We are worried that if this coconut tree felling is not curbed, Lampung will have a shortage of coconuts, especially if there is no replanting," he said.

In fact, he went on, the agency has taken a number of measures to overcome this problem, including counseling villagers.

Unfortunately, thousands of coconut trees have died because of the drought that hit this province for seven months in 1997. Many more trees shared the same fate when scores of hectares of coconut tree plantations were ravaged by fires raging in this province last year, including in Mesuji, Tulang Bawang district.

Coconut tree plantations have also shrunk in size because in many cases the land has been converted into housing complexes.

One is justified to worry about sustainability of coconut trees in this province because while it takes no less than 10 minutes to fell a coconut tree, it takes seven years before a young coconut tree can bear fruit. Perhaps it will take less time in the case of superior coconut seedlings, such as in the case of hybrid coconut seedlings. Even then, it will take some four or five years before the coconut trees bear fruit.

Foreign exchange

Coconut trees have been bring in a lot of foreign exchange to Lampung.

Between January and November 1997, Lampung exported 30,100 tons of coconut oil worth $18.8 million.

Over the same period, it also exported 3,295 tons of coconut flour, worth $3.5 million; 86 tons of coconut milk, $33,595; 19,186 tons of copra residue, $1.7 million; and 15 tons of coconut water, $23,210.

The province's two new export commodities made from coconuts are a coconut essence called nata de coco and a coconut concentrate in jelly form. In 1997, it exported 347 tons of the essence worth $175,200 and 25 tons of the concentrate worth $9,967.

However, the drought that hit this province last year sharply reduced the region's coconut production. In coconut plantations in Central Lampung and South Lampung, for example, coconut trees bore much less fruit and even if they did have fruit, it was much smaller in size.

Zumrono and Amir, two brothers who grow coconut trees in Kampung Baru, Padang Cermin, South Lampung, said that they have 60 plots of coconut tree plantations and that the harvest is reaped, in rotation, every half a month. They usually hire 10 people to pick the coconuts.

"In one harvest, we normally collect between 150,000 and 200,000 coconuts. Now, we get a maximum of 75,000 coconuts, which have also shrunk in size," they said.

Local coconut growers also complain of the quality of young coconut trees. These trees cannot stand too much heat and die easily in a long dry season.

"Older coconut trees are usually better resistant to heat," they said.

Lampung now has 146,569 hectares of private coconut plantations with an average annual production of 151,300 tons, and 46,463 hectares of hybrid coconut plantations with an annual production level of 16,700 tons.

To ensure that Lampung does not suffer a scarcity of coconuts, rejuvenation of coconut plantations is a must, especially because the demand for coconuts in this province is on the way up, Zainal Abidin stressed.