HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon
Cradling coffee plants

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- Joseph Bogenggeng’s coffee farm in Barangay Aguid here has coffee Arabica planted in between pine trees and alnus trees. These coffee plants are of the Mundo Novo variety of Coffee Arabica, a cross of the dwarf San Ramon and the long trunked Typica varieties.

“Alnus trees”, the 67 year old farmer said, “are good wind breakers and also keeps the soil moist. The leaves of alnus trees are also good fertilizer and rich in nitrogen content”. Bogenggeng attended Integrated Farming System training at Benguet State University sponsored by Shell Training Farm in October 1997.

His training gave way to the planting of at least 1,000 coffee seedlings which he got from nearby Bangaan barangay in 1998. The seedlings, he said are products of Coffee Arabica plants introduced during the KKK Program of the government in the 1970s. Although Coffee Arabica of the Typica variety had long been planted in northern Sagada.

In the recent previous year, Bogenggeng planted an additional 1000 square meters more with coffee seedlings which he got from his own nursery.

He wishes for a greenhouse to produce coffee seedlings. He hopes the Department of Agriculture will help him set up his greenhouse. He wants the surrounding and nearby lots of other farmers be planted with coffee trees also and can source coffee seedlings from his nursery.

Bogenggeng also wants a pathway constructed to his coffee plantation in the hills of Aguid, Sagada. Bogenggeng’s 2,000 coffee plants planted in some 2000 square meters of sloping hills are interspersed with alnus and pine trees.

A pathway, he said, will bring better access to his farm where coffee plants are planted all over the pine clad hill. He wants a pathway to establish a main artery where one will enter and exit out from the farm. He said the pathway will make access better including the hauling of coffee harvest.

The coffee plants planted in 1997 are now harvested of their fruits since 2002.
Bogenggeng began selling coffee parchment at P110 per ganta in 2002 to the Pide Aguid Fidelisan Multipurpose Cooperative (PAFMPC). Now, he does not want to sell coffee beans anymore. Roasting, grinding and packing his coffee produce brings more income. One kilogram of roasted and ground coffee costs P300 per kilo. He sells his products to coffee traders in Sagada and Bontoc.

He said the original harvest of 1,000 trees is additional source of income for him and his wife as his children already have their own families to take care of. He said harvest of the additional 1,000 coffee plants which were recently planted will produce enough income for him and his wife for the whole year.

His 2,000 square meter hectare farm is taken cared of by him and one of his sons. His wife helps in the harvest of coffee.

“Last year when harvest was good, we were able to gather three sacks of parchment coffee,
” Bogenggeng’s wife said.

The “mutit” (civet) are also a big help to Bogenggeng. Cat-looking furry mammals called “mutit” gather ripe and red coffee berries and excrete these with the parchment intact but with traces of the mutit’s excreta. The moist parchment is left on the ground near the coffee plants in a collective heap. Bogenggeng’s task to harvest directly from the branches is lessened by just gathering the coffee parchments left by the “mutit” on the ground.