CARMEN, Bohol – Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap launched here a coffee and cacao development program for the benefit of about 4,000 farmers working on an initial 200 hectares of land.

Yap led launching ceremonies at Barangay Nueva Vida with Roseph Velasco Castelo, Vice President of the National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCOR); the mayors of Carmen and seven other towns that are initial beneficiaries of the program, officials of Nestle Philippines including Edith De Leon, the company's Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs; Art Baria, Vice President for Agriculture; and Odessa Lanas, Marketing Manager.

Also present at the event were Pacita Juan and Nicholas A. Matti, co-Chairpersons of the Philippine Coffee Development Board; Edward David and Josephine Ramos, President and Operations Manager, respectively, of the Cocoa (Philippine) Foundation Inc.; and farmer-beneficiaries of the crop program.

Besides Carmen, the other Bohol towns making up the initial beneficiaries of the coffee and cacao development program are Jagna, Pilar, Sierra Bullones, Mabini, Bilar and Batuan. These areas are found highly suitable for the production of coffee and cacao in this island.

According to Yap, "This program to develop Bohol's coffee and cacao industry will include the provision of planting materials to farmer-beneficiaries; establishment of nurseries and bud wood gardens; technology transfer to improve production and postharvest practices; setting up of processing plants and promoting intercropping schemes such as the planting of vegetables and bananas."

He disclosed that “for the first year, we will be targeting the distribution of 200,000 pieces of coffee planting materials for cultivation in 200 hectares of land and another 200,000 pieces of planting materials for cacao."

Also under the program, each farmer-beneficiary will receive 100 seedlings, Yap said.

A nursery facility and bud wood garden will be established at the Carmen Research and Development Center to fully support the need for planting materials of improved varieties by farmers.

In addition, a post harvest processing facility in the town of Mabini will be established, according to the DADA Secretary. Earlier, the DADA said it was allotting a total of P350 million over a three-year period till 2010 to modernize the domestic coffee industry and enable farmers to meet local demand for the commodity