“And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.”
~ Zechariah 14:8
The Cordillera Association of Regional Executives (CARE) Kapihan with the Baguio media will be held on Wednesday, November 16. The discussions will focus on the conduct of the 2nd Philippine Conference at the Baguio Supreme Hotel on November 23-25.
The panel of speakers will come from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-CAR), Department of Agriculture (DA-RFO-CAR), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-CAR), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-CAR), and farmers to be led by DTI-CAR regional director Myrna Pablo.
The Kapihan will be conducted at the DA-RFO-CAR Conference Hall. I look forward to seeing Mr. Art Tibaldo and his team who will showcase coffee products during the Kapihan. Meantime, meals of unpolished (brown) rice shall be served, courtesy of the DA’s High-Value Commercial Crops Development Program (HVCDP) in the region. I do not know if it will come with servings of etag. Brewed coffee will be overflowing.
Coffee will always be a hot topic, full of its own flavor in the marketplaces of ideas and products of the Cordillera. There will always be new and exciting topics to talk about regarding Cordillera coffee, ranging from seed to cup including those that have esoteric allusions.
Ahead of the Kapihan, here is our first teaser to our media guests.
Upon arrival, we would have induced your thirst. Not to worry, because there is plenty to drink but ask not what it is, instead, ask how you can help sustain the flow of thirst quenching liquid from the Cordillera for all creatures in these parts and the rest of the globe.
As a member of the organizing staff for this activity, do not ask me about the beginnings and current state of Philippine coffee, seedling production, pest and diseases, other production concerns to include area, technology, investments; trading, markets and marketing, supply and demand management; and the future, I leave that to you to mine out from our guest-experts.
After the first conference some three years ago, I am sure their insights will be worth sharing to
your respective public.
Meantime, let me talk about the side topics, what I think, that sustains my interest and taste for coffee – Cordillera coffee that is.
Among human beings, wherever they may find themselves in the universe, the first order of business is to drink coffee, este to live.
Coffee is a crop rooted in a wide and deep historical knowledge base. Among the first crop my ancestors planted when they settled on a mountain lot in the interior was coffee.
Globally, coffee is presently traded to sustain humanity’s deep need to quench thirst. Its use as a drink expands for energy, to keep awake, for leisure, and as a social beverage. Sometimes, I drink coffee to dull and delay my need for solid food in the midst of a busy schedule. Today, we use coffee for shampoo and soap, wine, food flavoring and fertilizer. In due time, the crop must be saved from overexploitation.
I wish we will stick to the growing of coffee as a mountain crop and continue its use as social and leisure drink for a long time to come.
The liquor flavor of coffee is attained best when grown and harvested at higher altitudes. It tells us that with coffee, we can sustain life and livelihoods in these mountains even as we steward our abodes as Northern Luzon’s watershed for the benefit of our lowland neighbors, whether they appreciate it or not.
For our benefit, the techniques and methods of growing coffee in mountainous terrains has been demonstrated through indigenous ways and scientific methods. Coffee can be grown under pine trees (Benguet and Mountain Province), inside broad leaf forest trees (Kalinga and Ifugao), in combination with commercial and other industrial crops (coffee under sayote, coffee and bananas, coffee under fruit trees), or in combination with hedge fence trees and crops.
Coffee is a crop that can support ecological livelihood and diversity. It can be an excellent source of nectar and pollen for insects, food for birds, civet cats and other forest mammals and other animals whose roles and survival contribute to sustaining quality living in our highlands.
The importance of coffee as a highland crop certainly goes beyond its consumption as a beverage drink. It is one crop that can make our hearts flow with living waters and sustain all life.