GMA okays palm oil project

President Arroyo recently gave the green light and support to the private sector initiative of establishing 4,000 hectares of oil palm plantation in the Northern Mindanao by 2005, with some 2,500 expected farmer beneficiaries.

In a recent launching of the project in Cagayan de Oro City attended by Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., Quedancor president and CEO Nelson C. Buenaflor, Oil Palm Industry Association of Northern Mindanao (OPIANM) president Manuel Boniao and OPIANM chairman Walter W. Brown, the Department of Agriculture through Quedancor committed to finance P196 million of the P280 million total project cost.

The remaining P84 million shall be sourced from the OPIANM members composed of agribusiness leaders in the region. Meanwhile, the National Agribusiness and Development Center Inc. (NADC) has provided technical support, identification of plantation sites and handled the business development aspect of the project.

Initially, up to the middle of next year, Quedancor will provide funding of P80 million for the first 1,500 hectares of oil palm plantation in the province of Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental.

Quedancor has an existing lending program for oil palm plantation for small land-holder farmers using the Self-Reliant Team (SRT) model currently being used in the CARAGA Oil Palm Project, also being coordinated and assisted by NADC. Quedancor has so far provided financing for 100 oil palm farmers in the seven municipalities in Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte. By the first quarter of 2004, about 700 hectares shall be fully planted benefiting close to 500 farmers.