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Sustainability
Farmers can train for free on modern
coffee farming
July 22, 2006 • Manila Bulletin
How would like to learn the good agricultural products in
coffee farming for free? And that includes free board and
lodging too!
If you do, better get in touch with the Nestle Experimental
and Development Farm (NEDF) in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.
For more than 12 years now, NEDF has been giving free technical
training to coffee farmers, technicians and agricultural students
year-round.
"What we do is extend technical assistance to the farmers
and in some cases put up demonstration farms where we provide
inputs while the farmers provide the labor as equity",
reveals Zenon Alenton, resident agronomist for NEDF. "We
introduce NESCAFÉ technology to them."
According to Alenton, the NEDF has trained 10,000 farmers,
technicians and agricultural students – a fifth of the
country's current total number of coffee farmers.
Training, which ranges from three days to two weeks, covers
the latest in coffee production technology. Sessions on nursery
management, planting and cultivation, harvesting, processing
and even marketing of green coffee beans are conducted for
free. NEDF even covers the farmer's board and lodging during
the training.
All the coffee farmers have to do is go to NEDF. If this
is not possible, Nestle Agri-Service Department sends one
of its four agronomists to conduct onsite training anywhere
in the Philippines.
Alenton said that by introducing the farmers to proven agricultural
methods and new technologies, they can drastically increase
the quality and quantity of their harvest. "We really
need to encourage right coffee farming and that begins with
proper training."
And not to mention good planting materials. NEDF helps propagate
high-quality and high-yielding Robusta planting materials
by selling it at cost price five years, NEDF had distributed
a substantial number of coffee seeds, coffee seedlings, and
rooted cuttings. The planting materials are estimated to cover
8,700 hectares of coffee plantation generating an estimated
20,000 direct jobs.
In his agricultural report, Alenton writes that most of the
country's 70,000-hectare coffee plantations need rehabilitation
and rejuvenation. Despite this, Alenton reveals that harvesting
and processing have generally improved with many farmers delivering
grade 1 to grade 2 beans.
"It is not difficult for our farmers to double their
yield," Alenton professes. "All they have to do
is to plant good planting materials, put the right kind and
amount of fertilizers to their coffee trees and maintain the
properly."
NEDF helps not the just the individual coffee farmer but
breathes fresh life to the entire coffee industry as well.
For more inquiries on NEDF and its training programs, contact
Joel Lumagbas at Tel. (632)-898-0001.
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