Hernani, Eastern Samar – the Department of Agrarian Reform witnessed recently the distribution of 10 coco twining machines to members of the Carmen Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries MultiPurpose Cooperative in this town. According to Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer (MARO) Susana Monteclaro, DAR through the first phase of the Agrarian Reform Community Project (ARCPI), which is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), last year gave the said cooperative P20,000 as livelihood activities. The cooperative then used the fund in assembling 10 coco twining machines and distributed them in mid-January to 10 of its twines. Monteclaro explained that finished products are paid by the Hernani Coconut Processing Plant wherein the members receive one peso for every meter of coco twine that they produce. Most of them earn P300 per day, she added. This activity gives the members of the cooperative, who are all agrarian reform beneficiaries, additional income to what they earn from farming. Development facilitator Emerita Molde disclosed that there is high demand for coco twines abroad particularly in China, where these are made into coco nets to prevent soil erosion, among other uses.

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