Nestle helps coffee growers

MANILA, Philippines - Nestle Philippines Inc. is extending its assistance to coffee growers, through the Department of Agriculture (DA), in the provinces of Aurora, Bohol and Mindoro.

Nestle and DA’s joint project involves training programs, farm planting modes and expansion plans for the subsector.

The establishment of a coffee mother plant garden and nursery is one of the DA’s targets to heighten the competitiveness of the coffee industry.

As part of the coffee development program this year, the target would be the expansion of farms in Bohol to become a productive 300-hectare coffee plantation.

A total of 9,000 coffee seedlings in Bohol have been distributed and transplanted to its key municipalities.

Based on reports from the DA’s High Value Commercial Crops (HVCC) program, a total of 41,675 seedlings were planted in the province of Mindoro. This accounts for 25 percent of the 100 hectares allotted for the coffee production project in the province.

In Aurora, a total of 500 coffee seedlings were already placed in their mother plant gardens.

DA officials said through its intervention programs, it expects to establish major coffee plantations by 2011.

These programs include the Coffee Production Technology Training workshop in Tagum City in the province of Davao del Norte, which was conducted in two batches last September 2009 and January this year.

The workshop included lectures on the economic importance of coffee, plantation care and maintenance of nursery, harvesting and post harvesting, quality control and marketing.

Last year, the DA and NPI, through a memorandum of agreement (MOA), supported coffee farmers in expanding and enriching their farms to transform them into coffee plantations.