Tabuk City, Kalinga—Cordillera coffee growers and processors cited the positive impact of science and technology research intervention in their production and commercialization.
“We learn new technologies presented to us by Benguet State University and Kalinga State University,” said Camilo Degay, owner of Magallaya Mountain Specialty Coffee in Kalinga.
He was speaker at the technology forum during the second day on Friday of Yookah and Robusta Coffee FIESTA (Farms and Industry Encounters through Science and Technology Agenda) hosted by Cordillera Consortium for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (CorCAARRD) held at KSU here.
Degay said trainings and seminars conducted by various government agencies equipped him with knowledge and technologies to improve his business selling high class coffee.
Another forum speaker, Virginia Sacki, owner of a coffee farm and Cafe de Kalinga, said there is money in agriculture, as she expressed gratitude to government agencies for the assistance.
The Cordillera region has high yields of Arabica and Robusta coffee.
The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development has funded research with CorCAARRD members like BSU and KSU for various regional commodities that included coffee and Kalinga native pig or yookah.
The name yookah is derived from how natives of Kalinga summon their pig to feed, which is also grown astray.
“PCAARRD and consortium members here have developed various technologies to improve yookah and Robusta coffee production,” Dr. Edwin Villar, the council’s Executive Director for Research and Development, said in his message during the opening ceremony on Thursday.
“For the last 8 years we are staging FIESTA so that the technologies for commodities developed from researches can be adopted for industry and commercial use,” added Marita Carlos, PCAARRD Applied Communication Division Director.
The FIESTA event here included lectures and forums on yookah and Robusta coffee production, technology and business matching, products exhibit, and other ancillary activities like competition for making pookah delicacies asasot and itag.
This is the third FIESTA event of CorCAARRD in the region, the first two highlighting technologies on commodities Arabica coffee, sweet potato, potato, and strawberry.