DAVAO CITY — Senator Cynthia Villar is prodding cacao farmers to venture into agri-entrepreneurship, agri-tourism, and agri-related training by establishing their own farm school or learning center specializing in cacao.
Speaking during the Kakao Konek 2018 here on Wednesday, Villar pointed out that increasing production and farm productivity alone cannot move the farmers out of poverty.
“We must also teach small farmers capacity-building strategies and approaches to level up their knowledge and know how to help them to operate their small farms as agri-businesses and to have alternative sources of income,” said Villar, the Senate Agriculture Committee chairperson who is also the primary author of the Farm Tourism Development Law or Republic Act (RA) 10816.
The lady senator said that many farmers have converted their farms into a farm tourism site.
“Many of them are now managing their farms as a business. It has become a win-win situation for them—they farm, they accept tourists or visitors to their farms and for those who have a school or learning site, they can also accept trainees/students,” she said.
“We really have the competitive edge in cacao, so we just have to work on enhancing or strengthening that. Having said that, why do we still import 40,000 MT of cocoa and cocoa products to serve the local demand? When in fact we are in the best position to fill the supply gap in the world cocoa market,” she stressed
She added: “A mere 10 percent share in the world supply can provide a profitable income to the country and local producers.
The global demand for cocoa products is expected to reach between 4.7 million to five million metric tons (MT) by 2020. Villar said this presents huge opportunities for the local cacao industry players.
She urged the cacao stakeholders to strengthen the local cacao industry first before aspiring to become regionally and globally competitive.
Based on the data of the Department of Agriculture (DA), local average annual cocoa consumption is placed at 50,000MT and local supply is only around 10,000 MT. (Cherry Mae Palicte/PNA)
