CORDILLERA COFFEE INDUSTRY IN
RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANE (CC1-RCC)
ADELA DAMASO COMILA
Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer
Municipality of Buguias and Mankayan
The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is the Watershed Cradle of Northern Luzon hosting 12 major river basins. Cordillera is inhabited by 90% indigenous peoples of the total regional population of 1.6M or 1.7% of the Philippine population with 13 major ethnic tribes. Land area is 1.8M hectares, a mere 6% of national land area. It is composed of 6 provinces, two cities, 75 municipalities, and 1,176 barangays. Landlocked and mountainous, it is physically constrained, 70% of land area are above 30% slope with elevation 500 MASL & above. Being a minority, it receives meagre government investments. Despite its constraints, it is known for natural resources, water, minerals, forests, leading to the development of hydropower generation, mining industry, and is food basket of highland vegetables and most sought aromatic coffee.
The Cordillera Coffee Industry is a climate change mitigation strategy in itself through the indigenous practices of production to processing. It is dubbed as “coffee jungles” being planted with mixed crops in “muyongs”, backyards and sloping ancestral lands. The Excelsa, Liberica and Robusta are grown in lower elevation areas while the aromatic Arabica abound only in highland Benguet, Ifugao and Mountain Province. Production is used to be traditional and for home consumption. However, farmers realized the economic contribution to their household economy. Hence, continued expansions of plantations adopting modern technology are being advocated. Stakeholders – DA, DTI, LGU, DENR, DAR, DOST, SUCs, private sectors like Nestle , Alamid & other processor support in terms of technology trainings, quality planting materials, post harvest facilities, and marketing. In this geographically challenged region, the coffee Industry contributes to triple sustainability bottom lines namely: agri -productivity, farm income improvement, and environment.
Profile:
ADELA DAMASO COMILA was born in October 7, 1963 at Pasdong, Atok, Benguet and now resides at FB 120, BSU Compound, Balili, La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines 2601. She finished her Masters in Public Administration in Baguio Central University, Baguio City, and obtained Doctoral Units in Rural Development in Benguet State University. Her Bachelors background is on Agricultural Education where she completed this in Benguet State University in 1985.
She is now the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer of Buguias and Mankayan of Benguet Province after having been the Senior Agrarian Reform Program Officer of DAR-CAR, Baguio City. Aside from holding this position in the DAR, she alighted as one of the coffee farmers in the province after she had been trained as trainer on Coffee Technology and Development. She had also been a trainer-facilitator on community development planning using the FSD and PARCIPS approaches under the FAO-TSARRD project with the DAR, trainer-facilitator on Barangay Natural Resource Management Planning as well as Rewards/Payments of Environmental Services (RUPES) and IKSPs. All of these, she had entered into after her various in-service trainings and knowledge acquisition activities.
She can be accessed through her mobile phone number 09297059226 and email address at [email protected].