A good crop is one of the pillars in the production of good food products. This is why a number of food manufacturing companies put up training centers that help inculcate the importance of good crop management among farmers and agricultural students.
One such center is the Nestlé Experimental and Demonstration Farm (NEDF) of the country’s leading coffee brand Nescafe.
The center started out as the Nestle Agricultural Research and Training Center (NARTC) in Impasug-ong, Bukidnon and was renamed the NEDF when it transferred to Tagum, Davao in 1994.
The NEDF’s facilities include spacious lecture centers, numerous plant nurseries, prototype coffee production facilities, and demonstration farms, among others where farmers learn about the latest and most effective coffee planting methods. It also has lodging quarters that serve as the trainees’ “homes” while they are undergoing training.
At the lecture centers, well-trained agronomists inform attendees about everything they need to know about coffee crop management — from the planting to the harvesting, good soil management and cultivation and even to the buying and selling of their raw materials. Lectures range from a few days to weeks, depending on the farmers’ allocated time.
Hands-on training sessions, meanwhile, are conducted at the vast area devoted to nurseries and demonstration farms, where the root cuttings and coffee seedlings that are made available to farmers across the country are likewise cultivated.
And since the NEDF is likewise an experimental farm, it also serves as a “laboratory” where new farming methods are tested.
Since its NARTC days and as of this writing, the NEDF has already trained over 10,000 farmers and agricultural students — about one-fifth of the country’s current coffee farmer population.