Agriculture Business Week

A two-year old coffee tree nursery is set to share Nescafe technology to farmers in Sultan Kudarat, the leading coffee producing province in the country.

D and R Farms, owned by Dr. Dante Eugenio and managed by Edgar Eugenio, is scheduled to harvest some 200,000 rooted cuttings of Robusta coffee from which Nescafe, the country’s leading instant coffee brand is made. Edgar, a retired pharmaceutical executive is a graduate of coffee specialist course at the Nestle Experimental and Demonstration Farm (NEDF) in Tagum, Davao del Norte.

“We are excited about the renewed interest of farmers in coffee,” Says Edgar. “In Kalamansig alone, our starting order last year was for 50,000 seedlings.”

Although their projected harvest by the end of the year is 100,000 short of their 300,000 target, Edgar is happy to see a potential boom in coffee farming in the province.

“Since our coffee tree nursery is right along the highway, we get a lot of inquiry from local farmers who want to start small to farm companies who want to start big,” claims Edgar.

In fact, Edgar has been encouraged to do consultancy for coffee farming recently. Today, he is doing a feasibility study for one company for a 200-hectare coffee farm.

Located in the town of Chua, D and R Farm’s one-hectare coffee nursery built two years ago in an upland area is part of Nescafe’s project to build demo coffee farms across the country to promote its latest technology in coffee farming.

The farm showcases Nescafe’s Coffee-Based Sustainable Farming System (CBSFS) which encourages farmers to use coffee as a main crop and a variety of secondary crops to provide additional or alternative income for the farmers.

Since rows of coffee trees are ideally planted five meters apart, CBSFS promotes the planting of companion crops like ampalaya, bell pepper, cabbage, eggplant, kamote,lettuce, peanuts, spring onion, string beans, ube, and upland kangkong to maximize the use of space.

“Aside from squash and peanuts, we are experimenting in growing strawberry as secondary crop here in the uplands of Chua,” reveals Edgar.

More importantly, D and R Farms has put Nescafe’s high-yielding Robusta planting materials within the farmers’ reach in Sultan Kudarat since Chua is the gateway to the coffee towns of Kulaman, Lebak and Kalamansig.

“Farmers in our area no longer have to travel 400 kitometers to NEDF in Tagum to get good Robusta planting materials,” says Edgar. “With the help of Nescafe, our coffee demo farm and nursery has become self-sufficient and can now supply planting materials to farmers in our province and the whole Cotabato region as well.”

Established in 1994, NEDF in Tagum City provides free technical training which range from three days to two weeks, covering the latest in coffee production technology from nursery management, planting and cultivation, harvesting up to marketing. The training is conducted for free and without any government subsidy.

NEDF also offers free pamphlets, brochures, manuals and other coffee farming literature. It also sells coffee planting materials such as seedlings and cuttings at cost price.

“I am really glad I had the chance to study coffee farming with Nescafe.” says Edgar. “Knowledge is a seed I am more than happy to share with everyone.