TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — What farmers once threw away could become their next source of income.
In Leyte’s coconut-growing communities, discarded husks and shells are being reconsidered as raw materials for new products and businesses as the government pushes farmers beyond traditional coconut production and deeper into value-added processing.
The Department of Trade and Industry’s Leyte Provincial Office is working with coconut farmers, cooperatives and young people to transform coconut by-products into commercially useful materials such as coco coir, coco peat and handicrafts, according to the Philippine Information Agency.
The initiative is being carried out through DTI’s Rural Agro-Enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development and Growth, or RAPID Growth Project, a wider program designed to connect small farmers and rural enterprises with processing technology, financing, infrastructure and markets.
And in Leyte, the strategy is straightforward: instead of earning from only the coconut itself, farmers are being encouraged to find value in virtually every part of it.
22 Young Participants Learn How Waste Can Become Income
A two-day training organized under the program brought together 22 young participants endorsed by KAMMPIL AgriCoop, who received hands-on instruction in producing coco peat and coco coir.
Members of five partner farmer organizations were also taught how discarded coconut shells could be transformed into handicrafts with commercial potential.
The training covered processing, product development and value addition—skills that could eventually allow farming organizations to diversify beyond selling conventional coconut commodities.
DTI Leyte Provincial Director Faustino Gayas Jr. said the objective is to change how communities look at the crop.
“There is an opportunity in every part of the coconut.”
But turning waste into a product is only the first step. Farmers and cooperatives still need consistent quality, reliable production, buyers and viable business models if those products are to generate sustainable income.
Gayas stressed that participants must apply their new skills, improve their products and identify markets capable of supporting their enterprises.
Why Coco Coir and Coco Peat Matter
The opportunity goes beyond handicrafts.
Coconut husks can be processed into coir fiber, while the material left from processing can become coco peat, a growing medium widely used in horticulture.
That means material that might otherwise have little value at farm level can enter an entirely different commercial chain.
Government data have long shown, however, that the Philippines’ coir-processing capacity is unevenly distributed. A Philippine Coconut Authority industry roadmap using 2018 figures identified 165 decorticating or coir-processing plants nationwide, with only six—or about 3.6 percent—located in Eastern Visayas.
That historical capacity gap helps explain why processing technology and enterprise development remain important parts of the government’s coconut strategy.
Leyte’s Coconut Push Is Bigger Than One Training Program
The latest DTI initiative is not happening in isolation.
RAPID Growth is a ₱4.7-billion, value-chain-focused rural enterprise program spearheaded by DTI and funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
The program focuses on agricultural value chains including coconut, cacao, coffee, and processed fruits and nuts, with Leyte among its target provinces.
Its objective is broader than simply teaching farmers how to make new products. RAPID Growth seeks to connect farmers and rural micro, small and medium enterprises with markets, technology, financing, infrastructure and larger businesses.
That strategy has already resulted in physical infrastructure in Leyte.
A 2.073-kilometer farm-to-market road in Barangay Tinambacan, Jaro was developed under RAPID Growth to support the local coconut industry. DTI project information put its total cost at roughly ₱32.27 million, while the Philippine News Agency reported that the road was expected to benefit 833 farmers.
In other words, the government is attacking the problem from several directions: better roads to move agricultural products, stronger farmer organizations, processing capability and training designed to create higher-value products.
KAMMPIL Shows What Moving Beyond Copra Can Look Like
The cooperative involved in the latest training also provides a glimpse of where that strategy could lead.
KAMMPIL AgriCoop, based in Jaro, Leyte, was organized after Super Typhoon Yolanda devastated coconut-growing communities in 2013.
According to the cooperative’s published profile, it developed an integrated coconut processing operation so farmers could move beyond relying primarily on copra.
Its activities have included desiccated coconut as well as coco sap vinegar, coir poles, coco peat, coir hanks and plant liners.
KAMMPIL says its service area reaches coconut farmers in several Leyte municipalities, including Jaro, Alangalang, Barugo, Tunga, Carigara, Dagami, Burauen, Capoocan and Kananga.
Its desiccated-coconut processing facility in Jaro is also listed in the Philippine Food and Drug Administration’s verification database as a licensed food manufacturer, with its current listed license expiring in January 2027.
That makes the latest training more significant than a standalone livelihood seminar: participants are being introduced to value-added production in a community where an integrated coconut enterprise already exists.
Government Agencies Are Expanding the Value-Addition Push
Other government programs are moving in the same direction.
In May 2026, the Agricultural Training Institute’s Eastern Visayas office conducted a five-day Training of Trainers on Coconut Value-Adding in Baybay City, Leyte, as part of efforts supporting the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan.
Participants were trained in coconut food-processing technologies and Good Manufacturing Practices so they could transfer those skills to farming communities across Eastern Visayas.
DTI Leyte has also applied a similar waste-to-income strategy to another important crop.
Earlier in August, the agency reported training cacao farmers, cooperatives and MSMEs to convert cacao by-products that would normally be discarded into potentially marketable products.
Taken together, the initiatives point toward a larger shift in rural development: increasing farmers’ income not only by producing more agricultural commodities, but by extracting more economic value from what they already harvest.
From Coconut Farmer to Rural Entrepreneur
For decades, one of the central challenges facing agricultural communities has been their position near the bottom of the value chain.
Farmers produce the raw material. Others process, package, market and sell the higher-value finished products.
Value-added processing offers a potential way to capture more of that economic activity locally.
A coconut can generate far more than copra.
Its husk can become fiber. Its processing residue can become growing media. Its shell can become handicrafts. Coconut sap can be processed into other products.
But training alone will not guarantee success.
The real test will be whether cooperatives can maintain product quality, achieve sufficient production volumes, secure reliable buyers and build enterprises capable of surviving after government assistance ends.
DTI itself acknowledged that challenge.
“The training is only the beginning,” Gayas told participants.
And that may ultimately be the most important part of Leyte’s coconut experiment.
The province isn’t simply trying to produce more coconuts.
It is trying to make every coconut worth more.
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