A UNITED States-based non-profit organization (NGO) will train around 3,000 coffee farmers in Soccsksargen and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) in improving the quality of their coffees.
PhilCafe project business development services coordinator Emmanuel Quisol said they will be bringing in foreign trainers from the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) and World Coffee Research to train the farmers in the right way of coffee roasting.
“We are already identifying the farmer organizations. We have identified around 40 farmer organizations all over the country and 12 [organizations] of which are from Region 12 (Soccsksargen). That includes [farmers in] Maguindanao area,” he said.
PhilCafe is a project of the Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (Acdi/Voca) which aims to improve coffee production and coffee quality of farmers in the Philippines.
“Kasagaran sa mga existing nato nga mga producers nga naga-roast dili pa kaayo ana ka-skilled pag-abot sa roasting (Our existing coffee producers who are roasting their own coffee are not yet skilled in roasting),” he said.
Quisol said they partnered with the Sultan Kudarat State University to assist them in the project.
For Maguindanao area, he said they are also eyeing to rehabilitate all the existing farms and increase their coffee production.
“We are working more on the number of farmers than the hectarage. Because sa hectarage, you can plant only this much number of coffee for one hectare. Usahay, ang one hectare naa lang may 500 ka trees (Sometimes one hectare can only be planted with 500 trees),” he said.
Quilos said they have also initiated coffee roasting and quality control training this May in Davao City, adding that they expected roasters from all over the country to join in the training.