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.
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