MinDA, partner agencies want to intercrop 100M cacao trees

By Cheneen R. Capon
The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) and its partner agencies are targeting to intercrop 100 million good quality cacao trees by 2016 in 200,000 hectares of coconut planted areas in Mindanao.
The agencies involved for this project are the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Trade and Industry, and Philippine Coconut Agency, and stakeholders in the cacao industry.
The local implementing partners of MinDA will be local government units (LGUs), individual farmers, cooperatives or farmer associations.
Based on the proposed participatory cacao intercropping project (PCIP), the planting of cacao trees will “contribute to the development of the cacao industry in Mindanao through increased production capacity meeting international standards for high quality fermented cacao beans.”
The PCIP “aims to sustain cacao-coconut farm intercropping to ensure long-term reliability of supply of cacao and cope with the increasing demand in the domestic and international markets.”
The three-year cacao intercropping project will be implemented from 2015 to 2017 under a “participatory and incentive-based systems approach to encourage coconut farmers to intercrop cacao in their respective coconut farms.”
“Under this scheme, participating farmers are tapped to source their own grafted/good quality planting materials and transplant them on the field following the PCA recommended good agricultural practices,” the proposal said.
Participating partners under the PCIP will receive incentives for the setting up of nursery while farmers will receive a separate incentive once the cacao seedlings are planted.
DENR will be providing nursery development while DOST will provide technology support.
The DTI, for its part, will give marketing and promotion assistance to participants of the program, according to the proposal.
The PCIP also aims to increase the income of coconut famers from P20,000 to P140,000 per year per hectare. Intercropping cacao with coconut will have an estimated revenue of P120,000 per year per hectare on the peak period which is on the fourth and fifth year from the time of planting.
Among the members of the cacao industry involved in the technology and financing support, market linkage and community development are Kenemer Food International and Philippine CocoaCorporation (PhilCocoa).