DA-7 to revitalize coffee industry in C. Visayas

 CEBU CITY – The Department of Agriculture (DA-7) is pushing to revitalize and revive the coffee industry in Central Visayas which has been declining through the years.

 DA-7 regional executive director Atty/ Salvador Diputado led the actual initial planting of 1,000 Robusta coffee plantlets at its Ubay Stock Farm in Ubay, Bohol.

 Report of the DA and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) stated that the country's production volume of coffee is decreasing by 2.87 percent annually, and the production yield is decreasing by 2.23 percent annually, according to Diputado.

DA-7 High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) Coordinator John Dennis Ranario bared that DA-7 is procuring planting materials of Robusta coffee to expand the coffee production in Central Visayas.

 Ranario added that in Central Visayas coffee production areas are in Bohol, Cebu, and Negros Oriental with Tuburan town in Cebu considered as the coffee basket in the region.

Ranario said that under the HVCD program, DA-7 provides various trainings and planting materials to the identified farmers of the region to increase coffee production.

Diputado explained that the coffee planting in Ubay Stock Farm is part of the high value crops field that the DA is establishing in parts of the stock farm to make idle lands productive. 

 "This activity is in accordacce with the Plant, Plant, Plant program of Agriculture Secretary William Dar," Diputado added.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, Central Visayas has 1,047,765 coffee fruit bearing with 104MT production in 2015 that contributed 0.3 percent share of the total coffee production in the country.