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| DA Sec. Manny Piñol handed 10,000 coffee seedlings to farmers in Kalinga. Image credits: Manny Piñol's FB page |
On Wednesday, DA Sec. Piñol revealed that a total of 10,000 coffee seedlings was turned over to Tinglayan leaders to be later given to the Kalinga farmers who were formerly marijuana growers.
Aside from the coffee seedlings, a P50 million Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program for the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) will also be given to the farmers.
According to Piñol, it was the Kalinga Provincial Governor Jocel Baac who recommended the coffee seedling grant to the farmer to help the government effort in combating the growing of marijuana in the region. However, Piñol also pointed out that it would take the farmers to wait for three years before harvesting coffee beans.
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The Kalinga farmers have been calling for the government intervention to revive the coffee industry in the province as this is one of the traditional source of income for many families.
The decline of coffee production can be attributed to the conversion of coffee lands into corn farms due to the lack of coffee seedlings. This problem is one of the reasons why some farmers have turned into planting marijuana instead which is illegal in the Philippines.
In his visit to the town of Tinglayan, Piñol also committed additional livelihood projects such as native pigs raising and free-ranged chicken raising.
Piñol also visited the P1 Billion Farm-to-Market Road project (FMR) funded by the World Bank under the Philippine Development Project (PRDP) which is expected to revive the province's declining coffee industry.
Source: Manny Piñol's Official FacebookPage
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