Coffee board seeks DA funding

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Coffee Board Inc. hopes to get continued support from the Department of Agriculture (DA) for its “Pilipinas! Gising at Magkape Program” (PGAM) which has reached out to coffee farmers all over the country.

Started in 2008, the program has conducted trainings and rehabilitation in Benguet, Mountain Province, Cavite, Iloilo, Negros Island, and many parts of Mindanao.

“I hope we will still get the P100 million allocated for the industry in the budget,” said Chit Juan, program director of the PGAM and co-chairperson of the private-sector led body. “We submitted our proposal to the new HVCC director and are crossing our fingers we can continue with the plan to do new plantings of coffee for 2011,” she said.

“Farmers…are starting to plant new coffee trees,” said Nicholas Matti, PCB chair-man. “In Iloilo and Negros, we have the cooperation of local governments and co-operatives,” he said, adding that “we have also submitted to a DA-attached agency, National Agribusiness Corp. or Nabcor, our plan to provide central coffee processing facilities so farmers can process their green coffee beans properly. We still have to check if Nabcor will support our proposal.”

The PCB vision was discussed during the latest National Coffee Summit which was attended by DA Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat.