In celebration of its global 150th anniversary, Nestlé Philippines will help to establish 150 model coffee farms in the country in line with the company’s Nescafé Plan, a program which aims to help improve the yield and income of Filipino coffee farmers.
The initiative was launched recently at the Farmers Information and Technology Services Center in the country’s coffee capital of Amadeo, Cavite, by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Ariel Cayanan, Mayor Albert Ambagan Sr. of Amadeo, and Nestlé Philippines Executives Chairman and CEO Jacques Reber, SVP and Head of Corporate Affairs Ernesto Mascenon and Nestlé Agribusiness Development Department Head Arthur Baria.
The 150 coffee model farms will be established by providing intervention packages, individually designed to serve the unique needs of each farm. An intervention package will consist of fertilizer, compost units, all-weather dryer, grafting tools and support, forest trees for shade, technical guidance and monitoring until 2020. These components will be applied initially to portions of the farms to showcase their effect on coffee yield, in order to influence more coffee farmers to invest in such interventions.
The model farms are in major coffee areas, namely, Quirino, Cavite, North Cotabato, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Iloilo, Surigao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat.
Pangilinan said his office and Nestlé have been partners for several years and, thus, he welcomes the continuation of the partnership between the government and the private sector in supporting and providing assistance to farmers.
Cayanan, saying the government’s partnership with Nestlé seeks to boost agricultural productivity, observed that the value chain for coffee production does not consist simply of farmers planting coffee but completing it by selling their produce at the best possible price.
For his part, Reber said the celebration of Nestlé’s global 150th anniversary is a “celebration of partnerships”. He added that, as the company would never have existed without farmers, it recognizes the importance of linkages with various sectors, including the government, academic institutions and scientists. He thanked coffee farmers for their support, saying, “Every morning you should remember that you wake up to work hard to make so many Filipinos happy, when they wake up and start the day with a cup of coffee.”
Mascenon said that, in the four years since the launching of the Nescafé Plan, some 10-and-a-half million high-yielding plantlets have been distributed through the government, and more than 30,000 farmers have been trained under the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C), an international standard for sustainably produced coffee. Farmers who are 4C-certified earn a premium for their coffee produce.
The Nescafé Plan is a part of Nestlé’s commitment of Creating Shared Value (CSV)—that of creating long-term positive value for society through its business and through an inclusive value chain. Nestlé focuses on areas of nutrition, water and rural development. The Nescafé Plan puts CSV into practice by increasing its local sourcing of coffee, while, at the same time, helping farmers produce more high-quality robusta coffee and improving their yield and income.