DA turns to high-yielding coffee variety

The Department of Agriculture (DA), through its Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) is pursuing a project towards the production of high-yielding specialty Arabica coffee and help the country relieve itself of importing some P4 billion worth of the commodity yearly.
Initially, the project will establish pilot clonal gardens at higher and lower elevated areas in Baguio City which later will be replicated nationwide when found successful, said Jose Dayao, DA regional executive director for Bicol.
In Bicol, Dayao said many areas could be used in the commercial production of Arabica coffee applying the clonal technology.
“The farms near the foot of Mt. Mayon in Albay, the vast sites on the slope of Mt. Isarog in Camarines Sur and the wide planting areas near Mt. Bulusan in Sorsogon are some of these places,” he said.
The project will be spearheaded by the BPI’s Baguio National Crop Research and Development Center (BNCRDC). According to its lead agriculturist Avelina Galacio, the Bureau would be funded by the DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR).
Arabica cuttings will be used as planting materials for this project as the BPI found it provides high yields averaging 4.38 MTs per hectare which is about double the 2.25 MTs per hectare yield from seeds, or even many times more than the very low average yield of 300 kilos per hectare in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) despite being a priority crop in the region, Galacio said.
BPI studies based on green coffee bean’s market price of P150 per kilo, the return on investment (ROI) from cuttings is high at 181 percent, compared to seeds’ at only 58 percent.
BPI’s project “Arabica Coffee Rooted Cuttings as Plant Materials” won a gold, the highest award for the Applied Agriculture category from the BAR’s 2011 National Research Symposium. It garnered a P1 million award now being used in pursuing more researches.
In a statement, BAR Director Nicomedes Eleazar said his agency has been supporting excellence in research among different government and academic agencies aiming to further support agricultural productivity and raise income opportunities for farmers.
“It is through researches such as this one on Arabica coffee that we can really find out how we can help farmers improve their income using the same crop they are used to planting but with newer, proven technologies,” Eleazar said.
Eleazar said, there are 410,000 farmers nationwide who depend on coffee for livelihood. In order to uplift their livelihood, techniques such as the use of cuttings should be learned by them.
Seedlings from cuttings substantially shorten coffee gestation period from planting to harvest to just 1.5 years. It usually takes three to four years for coffee trees to be harvested when seeds are used as planting materials.
Planting materials from cuttings are still limited, however, and farmers have not yet fully adopted the cuttings technology, that is why, the BAR chief said, information dissemination and trainings for farmers are required by this new system.
BPI also noted that coffee plants from cuttings were less susceptible to diseases. This was at a lower 2.3 incidence for coffee leaf rust rating compared to seeds’ 2.9 incidence. A lower 3.06 incidence was also noted for anthracnose in cuttings compared to seeds’ 3.25.
Arabica coffee was used in the study because it thrives well in upland areas like Baguio. The study obtained the stem cuttings from 30-year old Arabica trees rejuvenated seven years earlier.
The selected stems were cut into six-centimeter long cuttings, soaked in a Hormex solution for 15 minutes, stuck in coir dust, and allowed to mist to develop roots for planting in plastic bags after one month. The seedlings were subsequently transplanted to the field after six months.
Galacio said BPI already has seven strains of Arabica coffee which it has collected from various parts of the Philippines, including those from Davao. [PNA]