Sowing the seeds of a good coffee product

For more than 12 years now, the Nestle Experimental and Development Farm (NEDF) in Tagum City, Davao has been giving free technical training to coffee farmers, technicians and agriculture 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 Nestle agronomist Zenon Alenton, the NEDF has trained over 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 farmers’ board and lodging during the training.

All a coffee farmer has to do is go to NEDF. If this is not possible, Nestle agri-services department sends one of its four agronomists to conduct on-site 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."

Not to mention good planting materials.

NEDF helps propagate high-quality and high-yielding Robusta planting materials by selling it at cost price. In the last five years, NEDF had distributed a substantial number of coffee seeds, coffee seedlings and rooted cuttings. The planting materials are estimated to cover over 8,700 hectares of coffee plantation generating an estimated 20,000 direct jobs.

In his recent 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’s not difficult for our farmers to double their yield," Alenton said. "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 them properly."

NEDF helps not 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 898-0001.