Approval of Coco Trust Fund Measure Seen in 2021

Legislation authorizing the Coconut Farmers Trust Fund is expected to be approved within this year or by 2021, after President Duterte threw his support behind the measure in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said.  
“There is now a higher enthusiasm to have this coco levy trust fund be set up and legislated.  We will really work with Congress so that the legislation for the coconut levy trust fund is passed,” Dar said in a virtual conference a day after the SONA.  A previous version of the trust fund bill was vetoed in 2019.
He said that the Department of Agriculture has prepared productivity enhancement and social-protection programs for the coconut industry, including insurance for farmers, which it plans to implement once the measure is approved.  It also plans to modernize the infrastructure used by the coconut industry and to accelerate the consolidation of farmers’ cooperatives to better prepare them to engage in agribusiness, among others.