Coffee clonal gardens being put up to increase local coffee production

MANILA, Philippines - The government plans to put up clonal gardens in Baguio to produce high-yielding specialty Arabica coffee “cuttings” that should help displace some of the Philippines’ 40,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee imported yearly.  

The Bureau of Plant Industry-Baguio National Crop Research and Development Center (BPI-BNCRDC) aims to establish two to three clonal gardens in Baguio.  

The proposed pilot sites are high elevation areas Sagada and  Atok, and lower elevation areas Sablan or Kabayan.  

When successful, the proposed pilot clonal gardens may be replicated nationwide.

BPI-NCRDC agriculturist Avelina M. Galacio said BPI is seeking funding support from the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research’s (DA-BAR) for the clonal gardens to propagate Arabica cuttings which have proven successful in raising farmers’ yield and income.

Cuttings as planting materials were found by the BPI to give a high yield of an average of 4.38 metric tons (MT) per hectare, about double the 2.25 MT per hectare yield from seeds.    

The yield from cuttings is many times more than the very low average yield of 300 kilos per hectare in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), this despite coffee being a priority crop in CAR.

Consequently, return on investment (ROI) was high from cuttings with 181 percent ROI compared to seeds’ ROI of only 58 percent.

This is based on a four-year study of BPI and at green coffee bean’s price of P150 per kilo.

A clonal garden costs an estimated P1 million each or up to P3 million for the proposed sites, Galacio said.  

The seedlings from cuttings have substantially cut coffee gestation period from planting to harvest to just 1.5 years. It usually takes three to four years for coffee trees to be harvested when seeds are used.  

There are 410,000 farmers nationwide that depend on coffee for livelihood. To uplift their livelihood, techniques such as the use of cuttings should be learned by farmers.

“Our planting materials from cuttings are still limited.  Farmers have not yet fully adopted the cuttings technology.  So the use of cuttings in the region is still about 50 percent from cuttings and 50 percent from seeds,” she said, adding “we need to disseminate the information and conduct trainings for farmers.” 

BPI also noted that coffee plants from cuttings were less susceptible to diseases. This was at a lower 2.3 incidence for coffee leaf rust rating compared to seeds’ 2.9 incidence. A lower 3.06 incidence was also noted for anthracnose in cuttings compared to seeds’ 3.25.  

The BPI study was conducted in two sites – one of which is at BPI’s research station in BNCRDC.  This allowed coffee to be planted at 1,330 meters above sea level (masl). The other site is Atok in Benguet which is an area 1,700 masl. 

“We chose Arabica coffee because this is what really thrives well in our place in the uplands unlike other varieties that are good in the lowlands,” said Galacio.

BPI started the study in September 2004 using 80 samples. It was finished in December 2010.    

It obtained the stem cuttings from 30-year old Arabica trees rejuvenated seven years earlier.       

Selected stems were cut into six-centimeter long cuttings, soaked in a Hormex solution for 15 minutes, stuck in coir dust, and allowed to mist to develop roots for planting in plastic bags after one month. The seedlings were subsequently transplanted in the field after six months.

BPI needs another five to six years to further establish its findings and stabilize the yield at its targeted high rate of four to five metric tons (MT) per hectare.   

“It will take five years until we really achieve a good (stabilized) yield,” she said, “that’s what we’re going to look at in another proposed study.”  

BPI needs further support for future researches.  

“We’ve been looking for funds from everywhere.  Fortunately, the DA gave us P45,000, and  we just lumped it with our budget.  But our labor, our professional service, is practically for free,” she said.  

Galacio said BPI already has seven strains of Arabica coffee which it has collected from various parts of the Philippines including those from Davao.  

Coffee is the world’s most heavily traded commodity next to oil. It is the world’s seventh largest agricultural export by value.

Its consumption has been increasing globally arising from a trend on gourmet coffee-drinking in many societies, along with the recognition that drinking coffee helps mitigate chances of heart disease and cancer.  

“Regular drinking of two cups of coffee a day had about a 30-40 percent reduction risk of gallstone disease,” according to the BPI study.  

Coffee demand locally has been increasing by 2.75 percent yearly.  The country’s coffee imports continued to rise from only 47,700 metric ton (MT) in 2008 to 54,420 MT in 2010, according to the Philippine Coffee Board. 

Coffee imports is estimated to cost P4 billion yearly.