A total of seven farmers from four districts in Davao were recognized by the Department of Agriculture XI Tuesday for having the best quality cacao beans. The farmers who were given plaques of recognition by the DA XI at its Field Office located at F. Bangoy St. Davao City on November 22, 2022 complete the 10 region-wide qualifiers that will compete for the Philippine Cocoa Quality Awards 2022.
“Ang Davao City mi-submit siya og 13 samples and out sa 13, seven ang ni-emerge nga winners nga mu-represent sa Davao Region (Davao City submitted 13 samples and out of 13, seven emerged as winners who will represent the Davao Region),” said City Agriculturist Office (CAGRO) Cacao Focal Person Fe Oguio, in an interview with City Information Office on Tuesday.
Of the seven, one is from Paquibato District, two are from Barangay Saloy, Calinan District, two are from Callawa, Buhangin District, and the other two are from Tugbok District. Of the three farmers from outside Davao, two are from Panabo, Davao del Norte and one is from Mati, Davao Oriental.
Oguio said that the qualifiers were selected through the blindfold method by the judges last October 12-13 at the University of the Philippines Mindanao.
She added that the top 10 will compete for the National Cacao Quality Awards. The national-level winners will represent the Philippines in Paris, France in 2023. The awarding for the Philippine Cacao Quality Awards will be done at the Cacao Congress to be held on November 28-29 at the SMX Convention Center.
“Ang mudaog sa national competition maoy mu-represent nato sa 2023 sa Paris, France (Those who will win in the national competition will represent the Philippines in 2023 in Paris, France),” Oguio said.
Oguio said that many farmers were able to join because of the efforts of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture Field Office XI, which emphasized that all local government units and all provinces in the Davao Region must join.
The dissemination of information about the competition is on the farmer level and had been widened to encourage farmers to join.
A practitioner of organic farming on his farm for two years, Policarpio Enricoso is among the awardees on Tuesday. He said that he is happy that the cacao sample from his farm was chosen to be among the entries submitted.
“Nalipay ko kay opportunity gyud na labi na sa amoa nga farmers nga layo gyud sa siyudad, nailhan gyud ang amoang cacao nga lami siya kay nisakay man ta sa top 10. Duha mi ka farmers nga puro niapil sa top 10, pareha mi first time (I am happy because this is an opportunity for us farmers living outside the city center to be recognized and for our cacao to be labeled as delicious because it secured us a slot in the top 10. Two of us from our barangay joined and this is the first time for us),” he said, adding that the uniqueness of his beans comes from the fact that these are of the Trinitario variety, which makes them different from new varieties.
Enricoso is hopeful that such recognition for cacao farmers and cacao products will attract investors for cocoa products here in Davao City.
Meanwhile, Oguio said that the City Agriculturist Office intends to reach out to more farmers like Enricoso to join a competition such as this and help live the expectation of Davao City as the Cacao Capital of the Philippines.
“Next year mag explore ta nga ma-tap pa gyud nato ang daghan pa nga mga districts and ma reach out nato ang daghan pa nga mga farmers to encourage them to join para makita ang quality sa atoang mga beans (Next year we will explore if we could tap more districts and reach out more farmers to join to show the quality of our beans),” she said.
She said that another way forward is to conduct a city-wide cacao quality award, to include the districts that have the potential to compete.
Oguio said that currently, the city has almost 9,000 cacao farmers, with almost 7,000 hectares of area planted with the crop, usually in Calinan, Baguio, Marilog, and Paquibato District. CIO
