The Philippine Coconut Authority in Negros Oriental has extended the deadline of the Participatory Coconut Planting Program aimed at giving incentives to farmers who can establish a coco seed nut nursery, provincial manager Brendan Trasmonte of the PCA said yesterday.

The March 31 deadline has been moved to tomorrow to accommodate other farmers who were informed late about the program, and those who had made a nursery but failed to meet the previous deadline.

Trasmonte said the incentive price was also increased from P5 to P7 for each coco seed nut, under the first phase of the program.

Field officers are conducting a survey on all coconut farmers in the province, encouraging them to participate in the program to obtain better yield.

Ten farmers in Guihulngan City were the first to receive the incentive.

Records show that a total of 113,763 seed nuts were sown by 492 farmers in various nurseries provincewide. 

Trasmonte said they are expecting germination rate of at least 80 percent, and that, an estimated 758 hectares of land will be planted to coconut in the next few months.

Among the biggest coconut production areas in the province are the cities of Bayawan and Guihulngan City, and the towns of Pamplona and Santa Catalina.*MA

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