The Coco Oil product is one of the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project’s (DA-PRDP) prospective research studies to include in the CALABARZON region’s pool of Value Chain Analysis (VCA) that will then help create the Commodity Investment Plans (CIPs) per province.

In order to gain in-depth information about the commodity, the DA-PRDP Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO) CALABARZON I-PLAN Component  held its data gathering activity within the province of Laguna and Rizal on February 15-18, 2022.

In partnership as well with the Philippine Coconut Authority’s (PCA) Provincial Office staff, the whole team had successfully completed their household surveys and key informant interviews, with participants ranging from coconut farmers, to traders, and processors from the industry itself.

According to Planning Officer Mary Jane Rayosa, this activity aims to sort and determine each of the players’ needs and constraints within their level and how it relates to other value chain segments in the region’s coconut industry.

Many players have participated in the activity in hopes of contributing with the development of the coco oil commodity and further improving the coconut production here in the country.

Consolidated data from the interviews and focus group discussions will be processed and analyzed by the planning team, and be used to produce the final VCA report for distribution.  (Eli Ocial, DA-PRDP RPCO CALABARZON InfoACE Unit)

I-PLAN & PCA Team pose for a photo together with the IP community in Brgy. Daraitan, Tanay, Rizal

Planning officer Mary Jane Rayosa leads the Focus Group Discussion for the participants in Tanay, Rizal

I-PLAN & PCA conducts simultaneous interviews with farmer/trader/processor participants from Laguna

I-PLAN & PCA Team pose for a photo together with farmer/trader/processor participants from Laguna