 | Banana growers intercrop farms with cacao trees in Davao Norte |
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balita.ph; August 24, 2012 1:03 am DAVAO CITY, Aug. 23 — Several banana farm growers started intercropping with cacao trees in their farms in Davao del Norte. Rene Dalayon, president and chief executive officer of the Federation of Banana Cooperatives in Davao (Fedco), said they had to do this because they want continuity of production in their farms. Dalayon said they want to start a buffer in case something might go wrong with their market like what happened recently with their banana market. "Do not concentrate in one market, look for other areas," he said quoting what President Benigno S. Aquino III earlier told them in a consultation here. "And we took that as a good advice and we are also trying other options by growing cacao which is a good area to explore," said Dalayon. As a starter, he said they were able to source out funding through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of P800,000 that they used for building a nursery, propagating seedlings and training for farmers. He said there will be another funding release that they are negotiating also with USDA for P4 million which they will use to train some 2,000 farmers on cacao growing. This will be anchored with the Cocoa Industry Development Association of Mindanao, Inc. (CASMI Multi-Purpose Cooperative). Meanwhile, the ACS Plant Nursery and Services managed by Alfred Corpuz also has a tie-up with USDA through the ACDIVOCA (Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance). He said they were given a funding of P1 million and out of what was contracted for them to deliver some 120,000 seedlings, they were able to produce 200,000. But, he said ACDIVOCA bought from them an additional 75,000 seedling and sold to them at a basic cost of P12. They sell the seedling at P18 each. The Josefa Segovia Foundation, Inc. is also involved in cacao production where they assistcacao farm growers in eight barangays in the 3rd district of Davao City. The Foundation's executive director Imelda Sebastian said they link up with the Subasta Integrated Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative as consolidator of cacao beans. She said in 2011 they were able to ship 10 tons of cacao beans and their market are in the US, Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy. She said they are preparing a shipment of 12 tons this year. "We trade through a purchase order and we got the P.O. this month which shipment will be done anytime now," she said. Charice Mae Bacalso, in-charge for marketing said the order varies for either chocolate or butter fat. She explained that there are varieties with high butter fat contain and this can be found in the UF 18 variety. ACDIVOCA Agri Enterprise Development Coordinator Emmanuel R. Quisol said the demand for cacao is high and the market is wide however the Philippine cacao product cannot as yet meet the demand. He said current production is at 20,000 metric tons (MT) but the objective in 2020 is to generate some 100,000 MT. He said this can be achieved only when the country already have 65 million producing cacao trees in the Philippines. To maximize the campaign for more farmers or interested individuals to participate in cacao growing, the Kakao Konek will be held in Davao City at the Apo View Hotel on November 21 to 23, 2012. This is a first-of-its-kind conference and exhibit that brings together industry experts, farmers, nursery operators, plant breeders, traders, manufacturers, allied product and service suppliers. Data from ACDIVOCA and the Mindanao Center for Research and Development Cooperative (MCRDC) revealed that Davao Region now has a total of 110 cocoa nurseries with a combined production capacity of 2.7 million seedlings per year. About 11 of these nurseries are being assisted by ACDIVOCA through the CocoPal (Cocoa, Coconut and Palayamanan) project with a combined production capacity of 750,000 per year. In 2008, only around 10 nurseries operating in Davao region was engaged in producing grafted cocoa seedlings. [(PNA)LGI/DDB/LDP/UTB] |
