Coffee growing in Mt. Province received another boost from government with the commitment by the Dept. of Agriculture and Fisheries of a P5-M fund for the establishment of coffee seedling nurseries in each of the 10 towns of the beautiful province.
The additional funds were committed during my visit to Sagada town, famous for its burial caves, last Black Saturday after the town’s coffee growers and processors group complained that they ran out of coffee during the Holy Week when there was a heavy arrival of tourists.
Sagada Mayor James Pooten, Jr. said the town’s Sagada Gold and Sagada Black Coffee have shown great acceptability among coffee drinkers who visit the town.
Mt. Province Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr., who joined me and my team in the Black Saturday trip to Sagada said the Sagada coffee farmers produce 7 metric tons of coffee beans every year.
The production, however, is not enough to supply the growing demand of tourists who visit the province, especially Sagada, during holidays and weekends.
“It used to be that tourists would only come during long holidays. Not anymore. With the good roads from Baguio City built during the time of President (Gloria Maapagal) Arroyo, they would come even on weekends,” Governor Lacwasan said.
Vincent Alipit Andawi, manager of the coffee processing center, said they needed more coffee production from the farmers which led to the P5-M nursery development fund commitment which I made during the meeting.
The P5-M fund will be divided equally among the 10 towns of the province who will be required to set up their own coffee nurseries.
The seedlings produced from the nurseries will be bought by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and distributed to farmers in the province.
I also committed additional funding for a coffee packaging facility and suggested that the Coffee producers and processors should work with the owners of hotels and inns in the province so that Sagada Coffee would be part of what tourists would have in their rooms.
This is the perfect example of the new concept of agro-tourism where the focus is not only drawing tourists to the agriculture sites in an area but identifying what the tourists need which the farmers could produce.
(Photos show the Sagada Coffee Processing facility. Last photo shows Governor Lacwasan, Mayor Pooten, Mayor Leo Cawaing of Paoay, Mayor Jose Limmayog, Jr. of Sadanga and DAF Cordillera and Northern Luzon coordinator Rufino Panagan. Photos taken by Mayette Tudlas)
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