Enhancing Abaca Fiber Production Through a GIS-Based Application

The “Manila Hemp” (Abaca) represents the country’s capital, Manila. This fiber is strong, tensile, flexible, resilient and versatile, evoking the Filipino spirit of tenacity and persistence in the face of hardship. This fiber is one of the country’s top dollar earners, as its worldwide demand continues to rise due to its utility in a variety of agricultural, industrial, and automotive applications, as well as manufacturing organizations’ green computing demands. Likewise, the demand for this fiber is intensified because of its tensile strength capability in paper, ropes, cordage and cable wire manufacturing, as well as for clothing, apparel and handicraft industries. Despite rising global demand for this fiber, worldwide supply is declining as a result of man-made and natural disasters, that lowers the country’s fiber manufacturing yield. Because of this, new approaches to abaca farming need to be imposed to ensure that the production of fibers would be improved. This research developed a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based application that displayed spatial data about the current status of land whether it is an abaca land, rice land, coconut land or residential area and the vacant lots were recommended as abaca propagation sites. These recommended areas are for evaluation by a respective government office for its viability for planting abaca to help increase abaca fiber production in the locale.