The Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-purpose Cooperative (ADTEMPCO) is gradually realizing its goal of turning Abra into a Coffee Hub with Philippine Coffee Advancement and Farm Enterprise (PhilCAFE) in partnership with the market systems practitioner, ACDI-VOCA.
In the latest series of lecture-seminars conducted by the team based in the Cordillera implementing the project last July 21-23, 2021, ADTEMPCO employees particularly under the Business Development Services department and Mt. Carmel Agri-tourism and Training Center, Inc. learned about grafting techniques on coffee trees.
More than a thousand coffee seedlings from the ADTEMPCO-BDS Nursery was grafted with superior coffee scions from Bataan with the guidance of Mr. Donald Mapangdol, coffee farmer and technical support worker, and Mr. Edgar Pandosen and company from Philcafe.
The objective of the grafting process is to improve the coffee seedlings in Abra for distribution to farmers who will wish to participate in the cooperative coffee improvement program.
Grafting coffee seedlings according to Mr. Mapangdol improves the quality of coffee production as well as its care and management. With grafted coffee seedlings, production is expected in the next two years if proper care and maintenance is applied to the coffee farm.
When the grafting process will turn out successful, ADTEMPCO will be able to distribute the improved coffee seedlings to interested individuals. On the aspect of nursery management, the workers and employees are now more empowered with the new knowledge to propagate more coffee seedlings for the project.
At present, ADTEMPCO maintains two nurseries with 100, 000 coffee seedlings and various timber seedlings. The cooperative is expected to grow more to realize its goal of making Abra as a coffee hub and seedling capital in the Cordillera.
Interested individuals may inquire about the ADTEMPCO Coffee Program at the Business Development Center in So. Surcoc, Brgy. Dumayco, Penarrubia, Abra.