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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Thursday, April 20, 2017
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ILOILO – The Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) has requested a supplemental budget of P10 million for the massive production of cacao and coffee.
PAO chief Dr. Ildefonso Toledo said they planned to start planting upon the onset of the rainy season.
“We will concentrate on municipalities suitable for growing coffee and cacao,” he added.
PAO technical teams have been deployed to check target municipalities but Toledo did not identify them.
PAO was targeting 90 hectares for cacao and another 90 hectares for coffee.
“We would like, as much as possible, (to establish) nga plantation na gid,” said Toledo.
PAO chose for planting grafted cacao and coffee. Toledo said these can already bear fruit in three years.
Recently, the Panay Organic Producers Association (POPA) told the provincial government there was high demand for coffee and cocoa products most especially in Europe.
Aside from POPA, other stakeholders in the PAO program were the Department of Agriculture (DA) and League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Iloilo.
The country imports some 100,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee beans worth P10 billion annually mainly from Vietnam, according to the DA.
It also imports around 20,000 MT of cocoa beans from big African cocoa producers (Nigeria, Ivory Coast) costing a yearly average of $42 million.
In 2012, the DA allocated P192 million to boost coffee and cocoa production through new plantations and several agribusiness zones.
Farmers in Vietnam, the world’s largest coffee producer with a total of 1.4 million metric tons a year, practice intensive fertilization that can produce at least 30 kilos per hectare. They prune their trees and inspect diseases of individual coffee trees daily.
In contrast, the Philippines produces only 25,000 metric tons of coffee a year.
The Philippines is among the few countries in the world that can grow coffee and cacao with its geographical position around the equator./PN
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