The Abaca and other fruit trees
Planted by James Butoy

Last year we planned to develop our little piece of coconutland [4.4 hectares] into an abaca plantation and plant other fruit trees under the coconut grooves in fact we presented a project proposal to Dan Gallagher hoping for some financial assistance. While waiting for the assistance we started to plant little by little the abacas with 200 hills then after few months young shoots came we took it away from the mother plant and transfer it . Later we found out that it is not good for the plant that you remove the shoots when it is still young it causes the delay of their growth. Presently, we still need more abaca seedlings because we have planted in only 2 hectares yet.

Below are photos of the farm under the coconut grooves:
(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

We will be sleeping in the farm house (made of Gemelina tree) when it will be finished so we can watch over the fruits of our coconuts, cause many are stealing the nuts at night and even at daytime when we are not there. Construction of the farm house is stopped due to lack of money to nails, additional lumber and nipa roofing worth 5,000php.

We also planned (a longshot plan God willing) to develop this area into a camping area.