September 09, 2022
Fertilizer and Productivity Assistance to Coffee Farmers: A spur of a new opportunity in Robusta coffee production
Fertilizer and Productivity Assistance to Coffee Farmers is a collaborative initiative of Yara Fertilizers Phils., Inc., Nestle Philippines, Inc., Philippine Business for Social Progress, Inc. (PBSP) and Philippines Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture (PPSA) that aims to help coffee farmers improve their productivity and profitability.
The pilot of the project covers 10 coffee growers who are members of New Eden Multi-Purpose Cooperative (NEMUCO) based in Pangantucan, Bukidnon. Its core activities are technology transfer on good agricultural practices and crop nutrition solution to improve the yield and quality of coffee. These will be led by Nestle and Yara. Also through this project, the produce of the coffee growers will be sold to Nestle that will ensure farmers’ income security. On the other hand, PBSP will oversee the project activities while PPSA is responsible in developing the ToolKit using the learnings and experiences for future expansion.
Meanwhile, the 10 coffee farmers marked the commencement of the project upon signing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the project partners. It covers a total of 9 hectares for this cropping season until April 2023. By next cropping season, it will be expanded to 204 hectares with 51 NEMUCO members. To date, Yara, Nestle and PBSP have already finished fertilizer distribution and application to the enrolled farmers and monitoring is ongoing.
