Designed to update farmers in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) on proper coffee processing and post-harvesting technology for organic coffee-growing, the project is aimed at empowering coffee farmers to adopt the knowledge and skills that will allow them to be competitive in the global marketplace.
With the help of project directors of the Central Cordillera Agricultural Programme (CECAP) which includes Brenda Saquing, R. Paul Lightfoot, and Ely Razalan; and the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) led by Director Melito Montenegro, Figaro Foundation established linkages with coffee-producing CECAP cooperatives.
Recent consultation meeting held in Ifugao and Kalinga delved on the possibility of establishing a market for Cordillera-grown coffee, with the assistance of ACPC’s partner-financial institutions—the Land Bank of the Philippines and People’s Credit Finance Corporation. This paved the way for holding of the first Organic Coffee Farming & Marketing Program this May.
Through the Central Cordillera Institutional Building Program Trust Fund (which has ACPC as overall administrator), Figaro Foundation and its partner-agencies have endeavored to add value to farmer’s coffee crops through a multi-impact skills upgrading program. Also included in the training program is a fitting introduction to marketing strategies aimed at promoting coffee and catering to the organic niche market. Organic coffee fetches a premium price in the world market.
Among the five strategically located coffee-producing CECAP cooperatives that were part of the consultation-meeting and have confirmed 45 participants each were: the Lagawe Multi-Purpose and Development Cooperative and the Kiangan Community Mutli-Purpose and Development Cooperative (for Ifugao); the Dupligan Farmers Multi-Purpose Coop, Tanudan Rural Enterprise Agricultural Development, Inc. in Tanudan, and the Mananig Mutli-Purpose Coop in Pinukpuk (for Kalinga).
Figaro was invited to play a lead role in the First Organic Coffee Farming & Marketing Training Program, in recognition of its outstanding efforts and initiatives, including the "Save the Barako" campaign, annual farm tours, partnerships with municipalities and academe, and other thrusts to prop up the local coffee industry. The training program is timely and ideal in the Cordillera region. In this locale, most farmers have gone organic by default. Many have had to contend with cheap prices of coffee beans in the world market and growing production costs, leaving them with insufficient funds to invest in chemical pesticides and fertilizers for their coffee crops. Their traditional farming methods and lack of funds for chemical fertilizers have kept their soil organic.
The project is well-suited to Cordillera’s topography, which lends itself to coffee farming, the elevation and soil quality are ideal for growing the most flavorful beans (notably Arabica, which is widely used for gourmet coffee; it is a coffee bean variety produced at elevations between 3,000 and 6,000 feet above sea level). In addition, farms that span hectares of fertile land already have decades-old coffee trees that reach up to the skies.
Figaro Foundation, which is the social arm of the Figaro Coffee Company, has committed to establish organic coffee farms and eventually obtain organic certifications from legitimate local and international certifying bodies. Figaro is presently threshing out lasting partnerships with other coffee-producing municipalities, specifically to promote the refined Arabica and rare Liberica (also called Barako) coffee varieties.
While in Kalinga, Figaro CEO Pacita Juan also encouraged local coffee growers to plant additional coffee trees, especially since local coffee production, in recent years, has experienced a slump. Coffee yield dipped to over 20,000 metric tons in 2002-2003 from its year-ago level of 27,000 metric tons, while coffee consumption ranges from 53,000 to 55,000 metric tons.
Kalinga Governor Macario Duguiang, who graced a separate dinner with key personnel of Figaro Foundation and ACPC, lauded the efforts and expressed appreciation for the help being extended to the farmers of the Cordillera.
ACPC Director Melito Montenegro expressed hopes that from the initiatives, and with the multi–agency support mechanisms in place, self-sustaining communities will emerge,
At five years, six farm tours and 5,000 Barako trees later, Figaro Foundation Corporation is poised to take on new challenges, this time by exploring the terrain of organic farming.
For Figaro, turning attention to the other side of coffee—the farmer-producers who create the impeccable roasts and blends, helping promote sustainable agricultural techniques, and developing a culture devoted to producing good quality coffee from the Philippines, is turning out to be as invigorating as it brews.