Duration of the Project: July 2020 -
Project Site: Tuba, Benguet Province, Philippines
Grant: Green Fund, Japan
Person in Charge : Mhyra P. Seset
Introduction
Sustainable Agroforestry has proven to be a tool for maintaining forest cover and preventing rampant forest degradation due to different forest land conversions happening nowadays. Adaption of a Coffee-based Agroforestry system can substantially benefit the agricultural and environmental sectors, simultaneously leading to the community's economic advantage. Camp 3 and Camp 1, Tuba has three kinds of land-use: forest land, mining area, and agricultural land that community and the LGU must care in well-balanced management so as not to have overexploitation of resources.
Master of Organic Skilled Farmers Association Inc. (MOSFAI) was organized by Philex Mining Corporation to promote organic farming supporting eco-friendly farming. The organization's mission is to have sustainable organic farming through nature's care and resources, without synthetic or chemical supplements to crop production. MOSFAI members have been practicing organic farming, including coffee cultivation. Also, the organization has been supporting the NGP-DENR reforestation implemented in their community. They were encouraged by the DENR to continue maintaining forest cover, and with the interest of the members to have sustainable coffee farms, the officers of MOSFAI initially proposed a Coffee-based Agroforestry project.
Through every team's initiative, MOSFAI-CGN-MANALABO, the project was granted by GREEN FUND – JAPAN and started in July 2020.
Accomplishment
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, The local government implemented some restrictions for the community's security and safety, which affects the execution of the project activities in the area. Project activities were accomplished with the coordination of the CGN team, MAO Office-Tuba, the Barangay Officials of Camp 3 and Camp 1, Tuba, Benguet, and of course, with the support of the MOSFAI Association.
1. Consultation & Orientation
The CGN project coordinator and MOSFAI Chairman held a meeting on July 08, 2020, before the project's acceptance and deliverance. They discussed the project's objectives, activities, and scheme for the one-year duration of the project. They also assigned each team's responsibilities. So, upon fore-seeing and studying the project implementation's current situation, Mr. Osmundo Sabelo, MOSFAI Chairman, pursued the project.
And on August 19, 2020, CGN re-conducted the project orientation to the three MOSFAI members (representative of each Sitio), and both teams planned on how to carry out the project considering the new norms of the community.
2. Plantation Site Assessment
On August 19 & 22, 2020, site assessment was conducted on the four proposed plantations for reforestation and afforestation to assess the suitability and numbers of coffee and forest tree seedlings to be planted.
3. Procurement and Hauling/ Delivery of Seedlings
The seedlings procured for the tree planting are 4,183 Arabica Coffee seedlings, 2,000 Calliandra, and 1,000 Alnus. 2,183 coffee seedlings were delivered from Kapi Tako Nursery, Coruz, Tublay (Aug. 14 & 22, 2020) and 2,000 coffees from the MOSFAI nursery, Torre, Camp 3, Tuba. Calliandra was procured in the MOSFAI nursery for forest tree seedlings, while Alnus were purchased in the private nursery of Mr. Dengwaten at Bastian, Ligay, Camp 1, Tuba.
4. Tree Planting Activity
And as it was agreed during the orientation, MOSFAI Chairman and Hon. Dingwatan managed to facilitate and assist the members in distributing the seedlings and the tree planting activity. The tree planting activity was conducted in August – October 2020 by the MOSFAI members and some community groups. For the Arabica coffee and Alnus seedlings, it was planted in the beneficiaries' private land, while for Calliandra seedlings, the community planted it in the denuded area of Alapang, purposely for reforestation of Alapang Communal forest. In observance of the community protocols, the Chairman scheduled limited the group of 8 people to plant in a day; in succeeding 15 days, they were able to plant the 2,000 seedlings of Calliandra.
Table 1. The table below shows the list of beneficiaries and the number of trees planted.
With cooperation and interest to developed a sustainable Coffee-based Agroforestry they were able to plant 7,183 seedlings in this planting season and they will still continue to plant to accomplished the number of trees proposed.
5. Monitoring of Planted Coffee and Forest Trees
To ensure that seedlings were planted in the right place, CGN staff with MOSFAI Chairman and the farmers did initial monitoring on the newly established and expanded coffee plantation at Bastian, Ligay, Camp 1 Torre, Camp 3, Tuba, Benguet. As for observation, most of the planted seedlings have already settled in their environment, new leaves and shoots were developed, and they were thriving. The plantations have good shade trees; Alnus, Hauili, Mala-Tibig, Tuai, and other local trees are growing abundantly in the areas that provide sufficient moisture to the environment and soil that could help seedlings growths during the dry season. Validation of other plantation areas will continuously be conducted by the team.
Pending and Changes of Activities is due to the following situations:
