Napocor, Benguet planters ink MOA on coffee farm project

MANILA, Philippines - State-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) has sealed an agreement with a coffee planters group to put up a coffee plantation in its watershed in Benguet.

Napocor signed a memorandum of agreement with Benguet’s Cobabeng Bobok Arabica Planters Association (CBAPA) for a coffee plantation establishment project to provide alternative livelihood to families living near the Upper Agno river watershed reservation.

Napocor president Ma. Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita and CBAPA president Johnny S. Bugnay signed the deal involving 107 hectares of areas within the watershed reservation.

Under the deal, the area would be planted with coffee Arabica, which is considered to be the finest tasting and most sought after coffee beans worldwide.

“With the agreement, we are hoping to tap a hundred beneficiary families/farmers, involve them and the association in participating in Napocor’s advocacies in protecting the environmentally sound status of Upper Agno River Watershed,” Sta. Rita said.

She noted that one hectare lot per farmer/family will be planted with about 1,100 seedlings of Arabica coffee, variety red bourbon and typica.

Napocor would provide the needed labor cost, seedlings, organic and foliar fertilizers, bio pesticides, back pack sprayers and pruning shears to the farmers.

Funding for the project is through the Universal Charge-Environmental Charge (UC-EC) as provided in EPIRA Law (RA 9136), Napocor watershed management chief Emmanuel Umali said.

“We are also pushing for the project to discourage people from destructive activities that pose threat to the stability of the watershed resources,” he noted.

For its part, CBAPA will tend to their farm lots planted with coffee and at the same time protect Benguet pine and other forest trees from unauthorized cutting, lumber poaching and illegal occupancy within the watershed.

CBAPA will also encourage the beneficiary farmers to plant additional forest trees along the farm lots to provide shade and soil conditioning effect to their growing coffee plants.

Apart from providing farming implements, Umali said the state-run agency is also providing capacity building through livelihood training and seminars to interested members of the communities within the watersheds under its administrative jurisdiction, as part of its community development outreach and rural development programs.

Napocor is vested with complete jurisdiction, control and regulation over some watershed areas and reservation supporting hydro and geothermal power generating plants in Luzon and Mindanao.

It also co-manages portions of other watersheds with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).