Senator Cynthia Villar will be pushing a P2 billion budget for cacao intercropping and training to help improve the livelihood of farmers in the country.
“I have been pushing for cacao as strategic crops for intercropping with coconuts. The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is the lead agency,” Villar said in her speech during the opening of Philippine Cacao and Chocolate Festival in Davao City .
Villar said intercropping efforts can also help the country’s 3.5 million coconut farmers who earn only 50 pesos day. It can be a source of additional income for them.
She said the newly enacted Coconut Industry Development Fund Law emphasized that cacao is a good crop that could be used for intercropping with coconuts.
“We do not only have quite a lot of advantages, we also started cacao farming in Asia since the first cacao in the region was planted here in the Philippines in 1670 and we already have commercial as early as the 1950s,” she said.
Villar said the country has the competitive edge in cacao and the government must have to work on enhancing or strengthening this industry.
“Having said that, why do we still import 40,000 MT (metric tons) of cocoa and cocoa products to serve the local demand? When in fact we are in the best position to fill the supply gap in the world cocoa market,” she said.
She said a mere 10 percent share in the world supply can provide a profitable income to the country and local producers.
She said the global demand for cocoa products continues to increase and those present huge opportunities for the local cacao industry players.
Villar said itis expected to reach between 4.7 million to five MT by 2020.
Meanwhile, the cocoa global shortage is predicted at one million metric tons by 2020 but the country needs to strengthen the local cacao industry first before aspiring to become regionally and globally competitive.
” As it stands now, current production levels are not even sufficient to meet local demand,” she said.
Villar said according to the Department of Agriculture (DA), local average annual cocoa consumption is placed at 50,000MT and local supply is only around 10,000MT.
The senator said if the country wants to supply the gap in the global demand, the local industry players should meet DA’s goal of increasing local production by 40 percent, to 100,000 MT of dried cacao beans by 2020 which she believes it would be adjusted to 2022.
“To reach that production target, the Philippines needs to harvest from around 100 million cacao trees,” she said.
She said industry stakeholders must know which areas need improvement or enhancementof farm productivity, access to high quality planting materials, and comprehensive research and development.
“I believe continuing education and training is the key. Based on studies, among the barriers that keep Filipino farmers from being more successful are lack of technical expertise, inadequate access to socialized credit and lack of mechanization and financial literacy or business sense,” she said
Villar said she assures that in all the legislations I author and pursue, there are provisions for research and development.
“So the in the laws I have led the passage of so far for the sugar, coconut, fisheries and other agricultural sectors, there is sufficient funds or budget allocations for R&D, ” she said.
She said the government must also support and guide our farmers on how to tap into the regional or global market by increasing their exposure in trade fairs for instance and to educate them about internationally accepted standards as well as new trends.
“By working on improving those, they can command a higher price for their products,” she said.
She said majority of cacao farmers are smallholder farmers with average farm size of one to two hectares, majority of whom are among the poorest in the country.
“We are guiding them on how to run their farms as a business as well,” she said
To improve productivity, maybe cacao farmers can also venture into agri-entrepreneurship, agri-tourism and agri-related training by establishing their own farm school or learning center, specializing in cacao, Villar said.
“Because increasing production and farm productivity alone cannot move them farmers out of poverty,” she said.
She said small farmers must be taught of capacity-building strategies and approaches to level up their knowledge and knowhow to help them to operate their small farms as agri-businesses and to have alternative sources of income
