CAR gov’t agencies commit support to sustain LT’s coffee industry
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Cordillera government agencies particularly the department of agriculture, trade and industry, and tourism vowed its full support to sustain the capital town’s coffee industry.
In full force, representatives from the said government agencies were present during the opening of the third edition of the town’s coffee festival held on Tuesday (Feb 4) at the newly refurbished municipal grandstand.
Lawyer Jenilyn Dayawan, DA-CAR’s assistant regional director for research and regulatory, urged local coffee farmers to participate on the agency’s training program for nursery accreditation.
By doing so, Dayawan said, local growers would be able to get the required certification in the processing of their coffee beans and be acquire financial assistance.
The DA official, who represented regional director Cameron Odsey, strongly urged coffee growers vis a vis vegetable farmers to demonstrate Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) towards improving further the local commodity.
She also stressed the importance of biosecurity measures to sustain food security. Dayawan reported that DA-Cordillera has infused a total of P39 million in the coffee industry in the whole region. The amount include coffee seeds/plants, farm inputs, facilities, and farm-to-market road specifically under the national government’s program Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).
She added that based on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) 2017 data, the region ranked 7th as its share of coffee production nationwide.
“The growing urbanization of La Trinidad is bringing more opportunities of the value propositions for the coffee stakeholders in the town,” states in the message of DTI-CAR regional director Myrna Pablo, who represented by Director Freda Gawisan.
Pablo,who was in Manila for the National Coffee Board meeting, congratulated local officials led by Mayor Romeo Salda in sustaining the festival.
“The different support systems of government and private enablers are to be harmonious in bringing relevant researches, provision of appropriate technology, knowledge and skills and marketing intelligence,” Pablo states, emphasizing the efforts contributed by other CAR line agencies –DOST, TESDA, DOLE and DENR in support to the value chain of the local commodity,” states in Pablo’s message.
Regional director Jovita Ganongan of DOT-CAR, for her part, discussed the importance of branding of the local produced coffee as she urged town officials to put additional signage(s) to improve marketing. Ganongan encouraged farmers to participate in their tourism training programs such as farm tour guiding.
Earlier, Vice Mayor Roderick Awingan for his part emphasized the economic impact of the festival. Awingan added that this community-based activity is one way of sustaining the town’s tourism efforts.In a related development, Felicitas Ticbaen,municipal agriculturist, reported that coffee growing areas accounted to 43.25 hectares spread in different areas in the municipality. And a total 744 individuals are into coffee farming.
Primo Agatep/ABN
