Coffee production project benefits agrarian reform beneficiaries in Cotabato

MANILA, Philippines - The government recently launched a coffee production project aimed at augmenting the income of agrarian reform beneficiaries in the municipality of Makilala in North Cotabato.

DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program officer Marion Abella said the project, which is worth P470,000, seeks to produce 31,000 coffee seedlings to be planted in at least 50 hectares of agricultural lands along streams and riverbanks in Barangay Kawayanon of Makilala town. The barangay is home to the Makilala South West Agrarian Reform Community.

Abella said, “This endeavor supports the National Greening Program (NGP) of the government by planting high-value commercial crops, and second, it provides our agrarian beneficiaries with additional income.”

NGP is a project jointly undertaken by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“Aside from their traditional crops of rice and corn, the farmers will have additional income when they sell their harvested coffee beans because there’s a big market here for coffee beans,”Abella added.

The DAR, DA and DENR tapped the Kawayanon Multi-Purpose Cooperative (KMPC) as the agrarian reform beneficiary organization for the implementation of the project by facilitating coffee seedling production, site clearing, hole-digging and planting of the seedlings.

 “To ensure the sustainability and profitability [of the project], the three agencies will provide the farmers with technical and financial support,” the official said.

The project is being pursued under the National  Convergence Initiative – a government strategy that seeks to reduce poverty in the countryside by providing livelihood projects, infrastructure, agricultural technology trainings and access to credit.