Piddig starts development of 10-hectare Arabica coffee plantation

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff Reporter

Piddig, Ilocos Norte—A town famous for being the site of the famous “Basi Revolt” during the Spanish era has started developing a coffee plantation.

The switch from sugarcane, prime ingredient of basi (sugarcane wine), to coffee involves the development of an initial 10-hectare plantation of Arabica coffee in the mountain ranges of this town.

The mountain area is the coldest place here and the coffee plantation will be in be intercropped with pine trees.

“The initial phase of the coffee project is almost complete,” said Piddig Mayor Eduardo Guillen following the field visit of Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources regional executive director Samuel Peñafiel in Piddig.

Earlier, the DENR granted the Piddig government P52 million worth of financial assistance for the establishment of a coffee nursery to produce 2 million coffee seedlings in three years’ time, or until 2016.

As part of the National Greening Program (NGP), the DENR approved the planting of coffee trees as one of the components of reforestation project and at the same time, provide alternative livelihood to community residents.

Mr. Guillen said project beneficiaries have begun planting coffee at the pilot coffee farm since the onset of the rainy season.

The coffee project has the backing of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which is now on the process of releasing livelihood assistance to 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) beneficiaries here.

The DSWD livelihood assistance worth P5,000 per family-beneficiary is meant to engage family members to produce organic fertilizer through vermiculture needed in sustaining the coffee farm.  

The target beneficiaries have already undergone training on vermiculture. Vermiculture produces organic fertilizer through a simple process of vermicomposting. This technology employs African night crawlers worms to decompose household and farm waste materials to produce organic fertilizer for sustainable agriculture.

Vermicomposting technology is now being practiced by many Ilocos Norte farmers due to high cost of commercial fertilizer.

Aside from coffee, the Piddig government is also propagating shade trees like kakawate, as nitrogen-fixing enhancer to serve as shades for the coffee trees.

The Piddig coffee plantation was realized following the initiative of the local government unit here to tap the DENR, DSWD, Department of Tourism, Department of Agriculture, Department of Public Works and Highways and the Ilocos Norte government for funding assistance.

Under the convergence project, Mr. Guillen said that members of the zanjera cooperative will be primarily benefited as at least two hectares of the coffee plantation shall be maintained per family. Aside from coffee, other high value crops such as papaya and bananas are being proposed to be intercropped in the coffee plantation.

To boost tourism and export industry in the country, the coffee project, once operational, will tie up with the Rocky Mountain Arabica Coffee Co. (RMACC), a leading producer and exporter of Arabica coffee in the Philippines, for the establishment of a modern coffee plantation and later on a milling center to supply quality grade coffee to at least 200 supermarkets and 150 hotels and restaurants in the Philippines, Canada and the United States.

Record shows that at least 85 percent of coffee supply in the Philippines, or 138 million kilograms worth P6 billion, is imported from Vietnam every year.

Aside from the 10-hectare initial coffee project, Mr. Guillen is eyeing at least 1,000 hectares of forest land in Sitio Lammin as additional site of the coffee plantation.