“EACH province might only have to do 100 or 80 hectares, each town might only have to do 10 or 20 hectares, it is small if we look at it but if we put them all together there is one billion sitting in Benguet and it does not come from the mines, it comes from coffee.”

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This was according to Pacita Juan, co-chairperson of the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. during the coffee tree planting last July at the BSU Nature Park in Bektey, Puguis to launch the Pilipinas Gising at Magkape (PGAM) program in the Cordillera.

“It will be sustainable, it will be good for the environment, and it will be good for the generations to come,” she added.

The PGAM is a project to rehabilitate and rejuvenate all coffee plantations in the Philippines. The program includes a seven-year plan towards self-sufficiency in coffee by 2015. A major part of the plan is communicating the viability of coffee production to farmers and investors.

As a main partner to the program, BSU dubbed as the center for Arabica coffee R&D in the Philippines will provide technical support and initial coffee seedlings to the project. The technical support will be through the identification of areas with coffee production in the province, identification of beneficiaries for the rehabilitation and rejuvenation of coffee farms and the conduct of social preparation in the identified program areas among others.

According to the program focal person and BSU-IFHSA director, Prof. Val Macanes, the initial target areas for the coffee rehabilitation program are Kibungan, Kapangan, Tublay, Atok, Kabayan and Bokod.