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.