Landbank grants P13.8-M loan for Bicol’s abaca industry rehab
PIA Press Release10/06/2003
By Mario S. Arguelles, PIA Albay
Legazpi City (6 Oct.) -- The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has approved recently a P13.8 million loan facility to a school foundation in Legazpi City for the rehabilitation of the moribund abaca industry in Bicol.
Leo G. Llana, executive director of the Aquinas University Foundation Inc. (AQFI), the loan recipient, said the foundation will utilize the loan to revitalize the abaca industry in the region. “We intend to make it sustainable and disease free industry and thereby increase the income of abaca farmers, through the introduction of new technologies and marketing approaches.”
Llana said that the abaca industry in Bicol though considered moribund still remains a principal source of income of a significant portion of the region’s population. “The project would help revitalize the abaca industry which was once a principal foreign currency earner and a major livelihood source among Bicolano farmers.”
LBP president and chief executive officer Margarito B. Teves who came over for the project presentation was confident that the foundation through its network of cooperative associations has the capability to lead in re-establishing and reinvigorating the abaca industry in Bicol.
Teves expressed interest in this project because “it has the rudiments that will make it a very viable project. Among others, it has the component of management through Aquinas Foundation that would take a lead role in re-establishing and reinvigorating the abaca industry in the region.”
With the given financing plus technical and linkages support the project would develop and rehabilitate some 300 hectares of abaca plantations within five years,” Llana said and adding that the AQFI had so far identified 150 hectares of abaca plantation to be rehabilitated and be planted with hybrid abaca seedlings.
It may be recalled that the abaca industry has been hard hit by the bunchy-top and mosaic diseases which has wiped out thousands of hectares of plantations in the region and continues to affect existing ones.
For past decades, before the advent of synthetics, abaca was the principal raw material for the manufacture of the world-renowned Manila rope.
Presently the abaca industry remains as one of the top dollar earners of the country. From 1990 to 1999, the country generated an average of about US$78 million from exports of raw fiber and processed products like pulp, cordage, yarns, fabrics and fibercraft.
The Bicol region remains as one of the top abaca producer of the country together with Eastern Visayas, Southern Mindanao. Bicol has the largest area of land planted to abaca with 47,623 hectares or 44 per cent of the country’s total with 24,374 Bicolano families or 3 per cent of the region’s total population directly and indirectly dependent on abaca production.
However, the industry is beset not only with problems of low production owing largely to the bunchy-top and mosaic diseases but other factors that contribute to the slump of the industry like the very low earnings for farmers due to the existence of several layers of traders who pulls down prices at the farm gate.
Studies conducted by the AQFI indicates that there is no system of grading and pricing policy to determine the current prices of abaca materials at the farm level as it falls to take the higher prices of higher grade fibers due to the “pojada system” of harvesting and marketing which in effect pulls down the prices of abaca produced by farmers.
AQFI, a non-government organization (NGO) was established last year. Among the impact project being undertaken by the foundation is the abaca rehabilitation designed to assist its network of cooperatives and associations under the Anduyog Bikol program of the Aquinas University of Legazpi.
Anduyog (to be totally united with) aims to increase the income of abaca farmers and weavers to enhance their economic well-being.
http://www.pia.gov.ph/news.asp?fi=p031006.htm&no=2
By Mario S. Arguelles, PIA Albay
Legazpi City (6 Oct.) -- The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has approved recently a P13.8 million loan facility to a school foundation in Legazpi City for the rehabilitation of the moribund abaca industry in Bicol.
Leo G. Llana, executive director of the Aquinas University Foundation Inc. (AQFI), the loan recipient, said the foundation will utilize the loan to revitalize the abaca industry in the region. “We intend to make it sustainable and disease free industry and thereby increase the income of abaca farmers, through the introduction of new technologies and marketing approaches.”
Llana said that the abaca industry in Bicol though considered moribund still remains a principal source of income of a significant portion of the region’s population. “The project would help revitalize the abaca industry which was once a principal foreign currency earner and a major livelihood source among Bicolano farmers.”
LBP president and chief executive officer Margarito B. Teves who came over for the project presentation was confident that the foundation through its network of cooperative associations has the capability to lead in re-establishing and reinvigorating the abaca industry in Bicol.
Teves expressed interest in this project because “it has the rudiments that will make it a very viable project. Among others, it has the component of management through Aquinas Foundation that would take a lead role in re-establishing and reinvigorating the abaca industry in the region.”
With the given financing plus technical and linkages support the project would develop and rehabilitate some 300 hectares of abaca plantations within five years,” Llana said and adding that the AQFI had so far identified 150 hectares of abaca plantation to be rehabilitated and be planted with hybrid abaca seedlings.
It may be recalled that the abaca industry has been hard hit by the bunchy-top and mosaic diseases which has wiped out thousands of hectares of plantations in the region and continues to affect existing ones.
For past decades, before the advent of synthetics, abaca was the principal raw material for the manufacture of the world-renowned Manila rope.
Presently the abaca industry remains as one of the top dollar earners of the country. From 1990 to 1999, the country generated an average of about US$78 million from exports of raw fiber and processed products like pulp, cordage, yarns, fabrics and fibercraft.
The Bicol region remains as one of the top abaca producer of the country together with Eastern Visayas, Southern Mindanao. Bicol has the largest area of land planted to abaca with 47,623 hectares or 44 per cent of the country’s total with 24,374 Bicolano families or 3 per cent of the region’s total population directly and indirectly dependent on abaca production.
However, the industry is beset not only with problems of low production owing largely to the bunchy-top and mosaic diseases but other factors that contribute to the slump of the industry like the very low earnings for farmers due to the existence of several layers of traders who pulls down prices at the farm gate.
Studies conducted by the AQFI indicates that there is no system of grading and pricing policy to determine the current prices of abaca materials at the farm level as it falls to take the higher prices of higher grade fibers due to the “pojada system” of harvesting and marketing which in effect pulls down the prices of abaca produced by farmers.
AQFI, a non-government organization (NGO) was established last year. Among the impact project being undertaken by the foundation is the abaca rehabilitation designed to assist its network of cooperatives and associations under the Anduyog Bikol program of the Aquinas University of Legazpi.
Anduyog (to be totally united with) aims to increase the income of abaca farmers and weavers to enhance their economic well-being.
http://www.pia.gov.ph/news.asp?fi=p031006.htm&no=2
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