So Team Philippines split up again for the day but with new groups. Ben, Bridget, and myself drove to Tagum City (north of Davao) to visit our third Nestle site. This time it was their demonstration farm where they train farmers on growing techniques and best practices, and propagate seedlings for distribution. On this small farm of 11 hectares, they expect to produce 3 million seedlings this year in order to help farmers increase production. The Department of Agriculture mandates they produce 1.5 million, but the demand is much higher and last year they ran out. We learned even more about the strains of Robusta that originated from the Ivory Coast that Nestle recommends that these farmers grow. It got us to thinking more about the various varieties of Arabica and various strains of these varieties which would have to be examined before production for an export market could be built.
Aaron, Michelle and Ross are off visiting with the banks to learn more about the financing aspects for coffee. They aren't back yet, so maybe another post later today.
We also bid farewell to Mindanao today as we'll fly back up to Manila later on. Its been a great trip down here so far.
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