July 7, 2022 | Gaudioso Guevarras is among the first 39 farmer-members of Piñan Multi-purpose Cooperative (PIMPCO) who planted cacao in 2018 benefiting from the Cacao Production and Marketing Enterprise under DA-PRDP.

Guevarras was delighted to witness the turnover and acceptance ceremony for the 2 solar dryers, fermentation house and multi-purpose building at Segabe, Piñan recently, saying that these post-harvest facilities ultimately address to their drying needs for cacao wet beans. “What we (farmers) would do is to produce more,” he stressed.

PIMPCO is a cluster member of Sindangan FACOMA to have availed the second I-REAP subproject entitled “Cacao Primary Processing and Trading” amounting to P24.4-Million. It’s considered as level 2 of DA-PRDP intervention in support to the value chain for cacao in partnership with the Provincial Government of Zamboanga del Norte. The first was the Cacao Production and Marketing Enterprise worth P34-Million, now on its 4th year with the same proponent groups – Sindangan FACOMA, as lead, with PIMPCO and POEMCO as cluster members. It was gathered that both Sindangan FACOMA and PIMPCO are buying cacao wet beans at P35.00 per kilo, respectively.

For Guevarras, out of the 600 seedlings he planted, 480 survived from the El Niño phenomenon last 2019. To date, he counted to have sold wet beans to PIMPCO thrice, so far, because he propagated his first harvests for seedlings in his own nursery. Also, he made his own tableya for personal consumption. With the post-harvest facilities in place, farmers will be inspired to produce more, he said.

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