FARMERS in the sleeping hinterland Sitio Pluto in Barangay Balutakay, Bansalan town in Davao del Sur have woken up from two decades of slumber after getting a dose of caffeine from coffee.
Ariel Dubria, member of the board of the Balutakay Coffee Farmers Association (Bacofa), said farmers have been re-planting coffee trees since 2000 after seeing a resurgence of local demand for coffee.
In early 1980's, Dubria was young then when coffee farming in their town was a thing of the past.
Growing up, not a tree of coffee could be seen standing in this picturesque community, located between 400 to 1,000 meters above sea level at the Mt. Apo foothills, he said.
Farmers had given up coffee for vegetables as the demand went awry and they needed money to muddle through the daily expenses. Coffee trees were cut and vegetables had taken over.
Not until in early 2000 when demand started picking up again. The need for the beans was relatively high, which had the farmers planting seedlings again.
"We planted coffee again because there was a stable market in 2000 up to now. The cost to produce vegetables was also very expensive," he said.
Around 60 farmers are into coffee growing now, covering 50 hectares with around 1,800 to 2,000 trees.
This would yield 10 to 20 metric tons from October to January, the peak season. The farmers also prune coffee trees to encourage growth and flowering.
They grow the Arabica, the variety that's meant for specialty coffee.
They get support from different non-government organizations and Department of Trade and Industry, from training on good husbandry, post-harvest processing, to packaging.
DTI's flagship program Shared Service Facility handed the farmers with a de-pulper, flotation tank, fermentation tank, solar dryer, weighing scale, moisture meter, and bagger which help modernize the method of processing the beans and thus increase production by several notches higher.
Dubria said they used to dry the beans using tarpaulins on the ground, or sometimes with no mats at all, while the cherries were manually de-pulped using a large mortar and pestle. This resulted to low quality outputs, he added.
Now with proper husbandry and post-processing, Dubria said Bacofa sells green coffee beans to Coffee For Peace, Inc., Hineleban Foundation Inc., and Monastery of Transfiguration in Bukidnon, who roasts and packs the Monk's Blend.
The farmers are also getting support from ACDI-Voca's Mindanao Productivity for Agricultural Commerce and Trade (Minpact) project jumped in, an $8 million project that seeks to "increase agricultural productivity and trade in Western and Southern Mindanao.
Cocoa, coconut, and coffee farming families in these areas will benefit from higher yields and product quality, as well as better access to services and markets."
"Our coffee passed the taste and quality standards of tdm cupper from Colombia," Dubria said.
He said they got a sound expert advice from coffee specialists and cuppers from Ethiopia in Eastern Africa and Colombia in South America.
He said their association is hoping to export their coffee, saying "we can command higher price" if they ship out coffee beans to other countries.
For the meantime, Bacofa farmers are working on improving further the quality of their beans to qualify for the specialty coffee. (ALC)