DA begins P2M coffee project in Mindanao

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) in partnership with the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) will start growing the French-originated Robusta coffee plants in Northern Mindanao to raise the yield of farmers specifically those supplying green coffee beans for Nestle’s instant coffee manufacturing.

Through the Northen Mindanao Agricultural Research Center (Nomiarc), the agency will test Nestle’s coffee clones in three separate sites in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, and Misamis Oriental.

The P2 million project is expected to run in the next two years.

BAR Director Nicomedes P. Eleazar said BAR has allocated P1 million for the Nomiarc coffee project which also aims to develop coffee as climate change-mitigating reforestation crop in Northern Mindanao. Counterpart funds will come from different agencies.

The planting materials were provided by Nestle which has an extensive research work on coffee globally.

Coffee shop owners in the Philippines are now trying their best not to import their coffee bean requirements as they are also trying to encourage the increase of coffee production in the Philippines.

Bo’s Coffee chain owner Steve Benitez said that he is now sourcing his coffee bean requirements mostly from Bukidnon, and other parts of the country, although he said that sometimes the supply is not consistent.

According to Eleazar, when successful, the coffee clones should give many benefits to the economy and generate rural employment. The potential of the study includes the planting of coffee on 50,000 hectares in Bukidnon where 6,000 hectares are already planted on coffee.

Income from existing coffee varieties is P38,000 to75,000 at 0.5 to 1.0 MT per hectare of bean yield. With the Technology, the potential income is a higher P115,000 at 2.5 MT bean yield.

In 2008, Nestlè’s research and development facility in France announced its development of clones of Robusta coffee plants that have the unique characteristic of being suitable to particular countries.

“Each plant is genetically identical, as they are produced in a lab by somatic embryogenesis, a form of tissue culture. Should a pest, disease, or pathogen infect a farm planted with a particular clone of coffee plant, it is likely to wipe out every genetically identical tree on the farm, as well as every genetically identical tree planted within reach of the infection,” reported the Coffeehabitat.com.

Nestle intended to distribute its clones to countless coffee growers across the globe which supply green beans for Nestle’s instant Nescafe brand coffee manufacturing.

However, given the success of the project, Lapoot said Nomiarc also wants to have an option to sell coffee beans to any prospective buyer that offers a good price to farmers.

 Expected outputs under the DA-BAR-Nomiarc project are the production of 90,000 quality coffee seedlings as planting materials. The seedlings will be distributed free to selected towns for the establishment of Mother Plant Garden (MPG) which will later be the source of planting materials there.

It will also come up with a comparative cost and return analysis for the best coffee clones in different environments.

“We will capacitate the selected LGUs (local government units) in coffee seedlings and beans production management practices, said Lapoot and co-implementor Juanita B. Salvani, Nomiarc center manager.

“Coffee is the second most important commodity. It has a very high world and local demand, has long economic life span and is a non-perishable crop. Coffee provides an additional income to coffee farmers and generates employment in the region.”

Also part of the program is to find out how farmers may use rotation practices for annual crops (others than coffee) as an important tool of integrated crop management and as a diversified source of income for the farm.

“Farmers should use diverse crop rotations and seek to employ these whenever possible to maintain soil condition, minimise risk of nitrate leaching, and reduce pest and disease development to maximise plant health,” said Lapoot.

Nomiarc will test the coffee clones’ ability to become productive based on plant height, stem diameter, days to flower, and days to bear fruit and harvest.

The Philippines imports 50,000 MT of coffee bean yearly which should somehow be substituted by local production if local coffee yield can increase. (FREEMAN)