LOCATED in the foothills of Mt. Apo is a community of indigenous peoples belonging to the Bagobo Tagabawa ethnolinguistic tribe. Called the “Lanahan”, the group takes their name from the age-old religious practice of praying to the nature spirits and to the supreme being Apo Sandawa. In their prayer rituals, they offer lana or sacred oil concocted from herbs found in their farmlands.
They believe that Apo Sandawa, residing on the sacred mountain of Mt. Apo, has gifted them with a fertile and productive land, which has since become their ancestral domain.
The Bagobo Tagabawa Lanahan at Sitio Basak, Barangay Tibolo, Municipality of Sta. Cruz Davao del Sur are industrious farmers. Within their farms, they grow coconuts, falcatta trees, lanzones, cacao, abaca, and coffee.
It is coffee for which the group has been known. They nurture Robusta variety coffee trees, which yield high-quality beans, a fact which they attribute to Apo Sandawa (Mt. Apo).
Jeciry Antic, marketing manager of Tibolo Farm Workers Association (Tifwa), says that Mt. Apo’s sulphur, which drifts down from the mountain vents towards their farms, contributes to their coffee quality.
“Inig buntag, ang iyang aso sa Mt. Apo magpadulong na sa amua kauban sa fog mao na ning mu-spray sa among kape,” Antic says that this is one of the reasons they believe makes their coffee taste good.
(Every morning, the sulphur smoke of Mt. Apo descends toward us with the fog, and it sprays our coffee plants.)
As a gratitude, the group would make a climb towards the peak of Mt. Apo twice a year to offer thanksgiving to Apo Sandawa.
The coffee farm, interspersed with other trees and crops, is spread over a 100-hectare land in a lush mountainside. Antic says the older generation of Bagobo Tagabawa started planting coffee in logged-over areas after World War II.
She says planting coffee trees was an indicator to other would-be settlers that the land was already occupied and being cultivated.
Robusta coffee
Antic says the reason they planted robusta variety is because it thrives in their farm’s lower elevation.
“Ang among elevation baba kompara sa arabica, naa mi sa 800 meters above sea level up to 1,400,” Antic says.
(Our elevation is lower compared to areas of arabica; we are at 800 meters above sea level up to 1,400.)
An average coffee tree in the Tibolo farm can yield five to six kilos of fresh cherries. Antic’s own farm, a 2.9 hectare property, has 1,000 coffee trees. Coffee cherries are harvested every nine months.
For every five kilograms of fresh cherry weight, farmers produce one kilogram of GCB (Green Coffee Beans); the GCB are the raw, unroasted beans of the coffee plant, which processors and roasters buy. Their buyer would purchase their produce at P300 per kilo.
Antic says she sells the farm’s harvest to Tifwa, which processes the coffee into GCBs.
Aside from selling GCBs they can process the beans into powdered robusta that fetches a price of P900 per kilo.
“Mas arang-arang kung i-powder siya pero among buyer prefer nila ang GCB,” Antic said.
(Making it into powder form is better, but our buyers prefer GCBs.)
The Tifwa coffee farm can supply 20 tons of fresh-weight cherries, yet the demand is around 100 tons.
Antic says Paramount, which buys their coffee and also has a chain of coffee shops in Davao City, has added more stores, which brings in more demand.
Tifwa
The Tifwa was put up in 2017 with 69 members. Currently, they have 248 members, and it has transformed the community, providing them sustainable livelihood.
The members take care of the farm. They also harvest and help in handpicking the cherries, drying and processing them into GCBs or powdered coffee.
Antic says government support has helped improve their situation.
Tifwa was a recipient of a P18-million grant from the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Program (DA-PRDP), which enabled the construction of a processing building, seven units of solar dryers, and a truck that hauls their products.
“Sauna kung mag ulan sa harvest season di mi ka-galing, mao magtulo among bodega, magbaha pa gyud. Kaning processing building, rain or shine maka trabaho gyud mi,” Antic said.
(In the past, if it rains in the harvest season, we cannot process, the storehouse would leak, and it would get flooded. With the processing building, rain or shine, we can work.)
The DA-PRDP also provided training on good agricultural practices to make their farm more sustainable.
Other government agencies, like the Department of Trade and Industry, also chipped in to provide equipment like weighing scales, sorting tables, a moisture meter, and also training, like on packaging. The provincial government partnered with the DA-PRDP during the implementation.
The whole-of-nation approach is also part of the government’s National Task Force-Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) program, as Sitio Landig near the Tifwa farm is a conflict-affected area.
Tourist attraction
With peace returning to the area, the Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Office is helping it to become a tourism attraction by promoting farm tours in the area undertaken by inbound tour operators based in Davao City. The Tifwa accommodates two groups of visitors per month.
In a coffee tour, visitors witness a ritual of thanksgiving, visit the coffee trees, handpick cherries, taste their coffee, and hear the farmers’ stories. More than just witnessing coffee farming and growing, they are acquainted with the culture of the Lanahan.
Antic and the rest of the community are thankful for the changes brought about by coffee. After one bountiful coffee harvest, they gather for a prayer and offer crops harvested from their farms and flowers from their gardens.
In the ritual, they invoke the spirits of the mountains, rivers, ancestors, and the supreme being. They show gratitude to nature, to Apo Sandawa, and the unseen forces that sustain life in their ancestral lands.