Strangled Cacao: Debunking Coconut-Cacao Inter-cropping?

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The account and personal experience below  of Mr. Lazaro was pointed out to me by Mr. Wiley of DCF when I visited their farm. I mentioned to them that I saw an article about inter-cropping cacao and coconut so I shared it on this blog through these posts:

http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2013/11/intercropping-coconut-with-cacao.html#.Uz7B66g-rpo

http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2014/01/intercropping-coconut-and-cacao.html#.Uz7CUKg-rpo

An excerpt from the book:

One big mistake Lazaro distinctly remembers is a decision he made while still with the Benguet Corporation, when he strangled... cacao. "I wanted to move into the agricultural filed in a non-traditional way, so we identified a location that appeared ideal for citrus development. We spent a lot of money to develop the farm, but it did not produce the kinds of fruits we wanted. We planted cacao under coconut trees because cacao needs shade, and we thought there was a symbiosis between the two - we could fertilize the cacao and the coconut at the same time. But we ended up with two cropfields that lost a lot of money because, as we fertilized cacao. which is the higher value crop, the roots of the coconut went after the fertilizer, and you know the roots of the coconut are so strong so they eventually strangled the cacao. We produced coconuts that were so big, but lost the higher value crop, the cacao, was lost."

How to deal with such a blunder? Lazaro is quick to answer:"You just accept it and write it of."

Extraordinary Stories for Aspiring Leaders
Editors, Victor L. Madaraog and Nikki Katherine M. Dy-Liacco

page 121, Anvil, 2008

The book features fifty-one extraordinary men and women business leaders whose life challenges, experiences and achievements have given them insights into the kind of leadership that inspires, ignites and propels positive change in our society. Written for aspiring leaders, this book features extraordinary accounts that can inspire and instill hope for those who are searching for present-day role models.  http://www.anvilpublishing.com/shop/extraordinary-bookpaper/

I will verify with PCA if they have farms to demonstrate and validate what they've proposed is really working and will contradict the account above. Perhaps there are farms that would prove PCA's suggestion is really effective based on their own experience and I would like to visit and see the place for myself, because I am even proposing such scheme to a group of farmers in Quezon. Now I have to refrain from pursuing  the suggestion until I have personally verified it myself.

Hope readers of this blog could point me if there are farms that effectively, efficiently, and productively inter-crop of cacao and coconut. Would appreciate any lead. Salamat po.

Intercropping Coconut and Cacao

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Growing of intercrops in coconut lands produces more food and agricultural

products, ensuring food security of the people in rural and urban areas. At the same

time, the practice generates jobs and livelihood, enhancing farm incomes and the

purchasing power of people, thus alleviating poverty in farming communities (Magat

2004). Moreover, successful farmers serve as inspiration and enterprise leaders in their

communities, eventually treating coconut farming in an agribusiness way to create

wealth and more capital resources.

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is a tree crop that is highly suitable or compatible

under different production systems (intercropping or multistory farming, agroforestry,

etc). In cacao producing countries, it is grown mainly for its beans, processed into cacao

powder, cake and cocoa butter. These products are largely used in the manufacture of

chocolates, soaps, cosmetics, shampoo and other pharmaceutical products (PCARRD

2000).

Cacao is also a high value crop wherein the potential is not yet explored in our

country with an extensive area suitable for cacao growing as a monocrop or intercrop of

coconut. In fact, over 1M ha highly suitable or wet zone of coconut areas (except in

coastal areas excessively high in Na or saline soils) are suitable for coconut-cacao

intercropping. Its cultivation could promote an agro-industrial development aimed: at

value-adding export products, as well as reduction of importation of cacao beans rom

countries like Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia (PCARRD 2000). PCARRD

mentioned that to date, more than three-fourths of the cacao beans requirement of the

country is imported from major producing countries.

Cacao, a popular, stable and marketable long-term beverage crop is widely

planted under and between stands of coconut trees. To be a compatible and productive

intercrop, cacao tree is best planted not closer than 2 meters from the base of coconut

trees, at 3 m between hills and 3 m between rows. Furthermore, where there is limited

land for cacao monocropping, the inter-spaces of coconut lands (with 8-15 meters of

spacing of coconut palms) are amenable for several rows of cacao crop. Also important,

the bio-physical environmental conditions, soil-wise, sunlight-wise and micro-climate

variation within the 70-80% space between coconut trees in a farm has been known to

be highly suitable for a coconut-cacao ecosystem.

Original Source -  http://www.pca.da.gov.ph/pdf/techno/cococacao.pdf

Alternative link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1K31tSbc4mBWmY0aFZPQ05BZVE/edit?usp=sharing