Newly organized coffee farmers associations and cooperatives in Sultan Kudarat were retooled on leadership in Lebak town of the said province.

The I-PLAN component of the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) funded and organized the training, dubbed as Technical Support to Coffee Production and Processing for 10 Coffee Peoples Organizations (POs) in Sultan Kudarat, particularly from towns of Lebak and Kalamansig.

They partnered with the Mahintana Foundation, Inc. Peace and Equity Foundation, Department of Trade and industry Rural Agro-enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development and Growth Project, and ACDI/VOCA.

A recent assessment by government agencies and non-government organizations revealed that trainings related to values formation are highly needed by the coffee farmers in the said province.

“Majority of these POs were formed in order to become conduits of assistance and grants from various donors and organizations,” Nelly Ylanan, I-PLAN Component head of Region 12, said.

“Without properly trained and equipped with the necessary skills, vast majority of POs weren’t able to utilize properly the assistance given to them,” she added.

Ylanan noted that through these trainings, coffee industry in the region will be able to uplift their standards.

Remegildo Saonoy, Jr., a member of the Villamonte Coffee Growers’ Association, agreed that they need values formation trainings.

“This is my first time to attend a seminar like this… as small farmers, we need to learn how to handle organizations,” he said.

Saonoy added that often times, farmers just focus on cultivation and production, but forget to also acquire new knowledge in personal development.

“We need this since we are involved in an association and we need to deal with people,” he added.

After this leadership training, another set of retooling on farm management and on post-harvest handling and processing will be conducted in the coming months.

This activity was a result of the inked memorandum on December 10, 2021 for the Inter-Agency Convergence to Support the Development of Sultan Kudarat Coffee Industry led by OIC-Regional Executive Director Dennis Arpia Jr and Governor Suharto Mangudadatu.

Coffee is one of the priority commodities of the said province indicated in their provincial commodity investment plan, a tool introduced by the PRDP. (Carl Ulysses Aguillon)