Monday, August 13, 2007 Sanchez: Coffee growing and biodiversity green By Benedicto Sanchez Nature Speaks
SAG-ANG, La Castellana seems like any other Negrense hacienda, with its monotonous sea of sugarcane greenery. Except it’s no longer a hacienda or a monocrop plantation.
I went there last Friday for an inspection of coffee seedlings planted by agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) under the people’s organization MAGOFAWA.
While the agrarian reform community covers 22 hectares as assessed by the Land Bank, the total land area goes up to 36 hectares, which spans steep slopes. After a brief meeting, we went on an ocular inspection. To my pleasant surprise, I learned that 14 hectares of land from the Indurayan River leading toward Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park grew a diverse mix of trees. Mostly the Robusta variety, other native tree species include sambulawan, lauan, takinis and others.
Within three years, the Sag-ang ARBs planted 19,000 coffee trees. Conventional foresters would sniff at the planting design. Twice, graduating UNO-R hiked to Sag-ang to plant coffee seedlings. In one site, intercropped with the growing Robustas are organic cornstalks. Yet the planted seedlings have a high survival rate of 85%, based on our random sampling.
The coffee growers estimate that in 2009, they can harvest the planted trees. I told them the good news how they can earn much more from their coffee harvests. Serenity Coffee Inc., the maker of Coffee Alamid (civets which include the singgarong, maral and miru in Hiligaynon), is looking for potential suppliers. Biodiversity studies in the MKNP show the presence of civet and giant bat populations, potential sources of these coffee beans.
It turned out that long time Sag-ang residents drank civet coffee before. Virgilio Nunial explained that they like the soft texture of the coffee beans, harvested from civet droppings. He finds nothing gross in drinking the brew. He also said growers can plant the harvested beans.
I told them a better deal. Second quarter of this year, I had a telephone conversation with Basil and Vie Reyes. Their company, Serenity Coffee Corporation, is looking for suppliers to sell them the green beans, wholesale.
To encourage and empower farmers, Vie emailed me the 50-50 profit sharing scheme between the company and the organized coffee growers. That means that if a farmer group produces two tons, Serenity buys half. The balance is left with the farmer group for roasting and sold as retail roasted beans. The group can choose to have their own labels in their packaging,
Meanwhile, Serenity’s sister company, Bote Central, the retail and roasting company, is willing to sell to the community growers processing machines that includes depulpers, moisture meters and dehullers.
Of course, I got the growers interested which I shared with them these details. Civet beans can be worth their weight in gold. Demand is so huge, but supplies so small that a mere 500 kilograms are produced a year in the Philippines, with roasted beans selling for more than $115 a kilogram.
When asked how they can get the droppings since the civet poop all over the place inside MKNP, I told that the strategy should be to let the animals come to them. That implies that their coffee plantation should adjoin the boundaries of the natural park so they can establish a wildlife corridor and forage grounds for the civets.
In other words, I told them not to go after the civets. Let the animals go to them. The more trees they plant, the bigger the possibility that these animals could expand their territories. Vie said that biodiversity studies show that a civet needs 1.5 hectares for foraging and mating. That means the wider their forage grounds, the bigger the civet population and the supply of civet coffee.
The other step is to ensure that the animals are protected. The ARBs expressed their willingness to stop poachers from hunting the civets for bushmeat or for sale as exotic pets.
The next two years should be exciting for Sag-ang in terms of biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. These include ecotourism, centering on picnicking in Mandayao Falls and spelunking in its caves.
The ecotourism site is a showcase for cooperation among civil society, local government, and community organization. Former La Castellana Mayor Enrico Elumba provided a seed fund of P20,000 to develop the place. The target tourist market could range from picnickers to extreme sports enthusiasts.® Please email comments to bqsanc@yahoo.com
