LUCENA City -- The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in Region 4-A is focusing its coconut planting and replanting program using various improved varieties of dwarf coconut in an effort to revive the flagging coconut industry.

At its regional nursery in Bgy. Isabang here, 52,000 seednuts of dwarf coconuts have been sown 32,000 of which have germinated for distribution to various provinces in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region, PCA regional manager Joselito Alcantara told reporters yesterday.

The improved varieties of dwarf coconuts, measuring about 15 to 20 ft., take 3 to 4 years for their initial fruit bearing and are better resistant against cadang-cadang, an infestation that usually plague coconuts, according to Alcantara who assumed his post last Sept.

The seednuts of the dwarf coconut at the PCA regional nursery here include catigan green dwarf, orgullo, tacunan, magtuod, kapatagan, talisay, among others.

A fou-hectare seedfarm in Alaminos, Laguna also contain 30,000 seednuts of the improved coconut varieties, said Alcantara who added that the new varieties produce about 4 to 5 tons of copra per hectare per year or about 15,000 to 20,000 nuts per hectare per year.

“The dwarf coconut is aromatic, with sweetish taste, has thick meat and has big oil recovery,” he said.

Alcantara said that at present, the PCA is selling the new improved seedling varieties at P50 to recover their investment but as soon as the incoming seednuts arrive they will be freely distributed to coconut farmers in the region.

An inventory of improved coconut varieties in two areas at Quezon 1 covering the province 1st and 2nd districts, showed 158 synthetic coconut trees with 2,844 nuts per hectare at a coconut farmland owned by Conrado Lalunio in Matipunso, San Antonio, and 1,140 of the same variety, which has just started fruiting, to coconut farmer Ireneo Once in Lutucan, Sariaya.