MANILA: Philippine coffee industry is expected to get a big boost after five government agencies vowed to collaborate in pushing the implementation of the country’s coffee roadmap.
During the Third Philippine Coffee Conference held in Baguio City on Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority agreed to cooperate in boosting the country’s coffee industry by implementing the commodity’s roadmap.
In her message for the conference, Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, made reference to the International Coffee Organization and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) that revealed Philippine coffee production has been decreasing by 3.9 percent per year over the past decade.
With this development, Villar urged farmers to adopt “inter-cropping coffee with coconut, establish coffee nurseries, and put-up farm schools supported by TESDA and the Agricultural Training Institute [ATI] of the DA to have a better income stream and to get out of poverty.”
