An amount equivalent to P84.15, coming from the High Value Crop Development Program (HVCDP), Department of Agriculture (DA) has been allocated “to boost coffee production in the country”.
Specifically, “aims to improve productivity, product quality and profitability of Filipino coffee growers for the long term” – coffee being considered one of the most traded agricultural produce in the world, and a major contributor to the country’s economy.
It was learned from DA that from the above amount. P30.37 million will be spent to rehabilitate 486.450 old coffee trees while P10.56 million will be for the acquisition of planting materials to be distributed to local growers.
Further, P7.79 million will be for the maintenance of production facilities in DA stations, and P5.84 million for R and D. Finally, the same fund will be for capability enhancement and training of stakeholders, construction of storage facilities, roasting centers, and other production equipment as well as various farm inputs.
Lately, the Philippines is 15 percent self-sufficient in coffee – bulk coming from Mindanao with a share of 83.65 percent, Luzon with 9.18 percent and Visayas at 7.2 percent. Sadly, though, coffee production has been on a downtrend in recent years as reported DA.
In June, the Coffeee Inustry Road Map 2021-2015 was laiunched by DA,along with other commodity roadmaps as guide to improve other agri-sectors.
MY COMMENT:
As experienced in the family backyard farm with coffee trees, I found that the trees to be among the easy to maintain agri-plants. The 77 barangays of Burauen offer a veritable farmland to coffee plantation to augment the socio-economic lives of upland barangay farmers. Indeed, Batangas’ coffee barako compares to the world’s preferred coffee beverages and should be popularized in the other provinces of the Philippines.
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