DENR allots 86,000 hectares for coffee plantation under NGP

Tuesday, 03 July 2012 00:00 |

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is allotting some 86,000 hectares of upland areas for development into coffee plantations under the National Greening Program (NGP).

This was stressed today by DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje saying the inclusion of coffee as among the high-value crops that will be planted under the NGP is in keeping with the food security objective of the program.

“The National Greening Program is not solely reforestation but it is also conceived to boost food production, and coffee is one crop that we know we can be self sufficient by putting more government inputs to local coffee farming through the National Convergence Initiative (NCI),” Paje said.

According to Paje, of the 86,000 hectares allotted for coffee farming, around 25,000 hectares are located in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); 12,000 hectares in Region 2 and 10,000 hectares in Region 12.

Regions 3, 4A, 4B and 11 have 5,000 hectares each; Regions 5,7 and 8 have 4,000 hectares each; 2, 000 hectares each for Regions 9 and 10); and 1,000 hectares each for Regions 1, 6 and 13.

Last year, Paje said that some 2,554 hectares have been planted with 1.5 million coffee seedlings under the NGP.

NCI is a complementary mechanism that combines DENR’s resources and expertise with those of DA and DAR to achieve sustainable rural growth.

“NGP’s efforts to energize the local coffee industry complements DA and DAR’s strides to enable our local farmers to turn to high value crops like coffee and eventually remove the need for imported coffee beans, mostly from Indonesia and Vietnam, to meet local demand,” Paje said.

Paje expressed optimism that the areas identified will have a substantial input to the government’s effort to replace its coffee importation which, in 2010, already stood at 26,600 metric tons per data of the DA-Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. (PADCC).##

EnvironmentNatural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje rallied last week his field officials to ensure the success of the National Greening Program, saying the program has full support of the President.

“There is no reason to fail considering that President Aquino has amply given all the support this program (NGP) needs to succeed,” Paje told the regional executive directors (REDs), regional technical directors, and the provincial and community environment and natural resources officers (PENROs, CENROs) attending the 2-day National Convention of Field Officers held May 31-June 1, 2011 at the DENR Social Hall in Quezon City.

Paje also challenged the field officials “to give their best shot” as their performance in implementing the NGP will be “highly taken into consideration’ in the evaluation of officials for promotions.

“Those who will be performing will be rewarded. Wala pong biro yan,” Paje said, stressing that the field officers will be evaluated fairly based on a purely-merit system “without regard for personal ties or past associations” he has made through over 20 years at the DENR where he started his career as a casual forester.

Paje said the NGP-driven performance-based incentive scheme will first zero in on the PENRO and CENRO positions, with an instruction to DENR Assistant Secretary for Management and Finance Corazon Davis to reserve the vacant PENRO and CENRO posts as rewards for NGP’s top performers especially those that are on an acting capacity.

“If you are a CENRO, you will automatically become a PENRO. Those who are not yet full-pledged CENRO (with temporary appointment), we will make you full-pledged CENROs. Performance lamang, wala nang iba,” Paje stressed.

Of the 168 CENRO plantilla positions, 47 have yet to be filled; while 25 remain vacant in the 73 PENRO plantilla posts.

The incentive scheme forms part of Paje’s overall program to strengthen DENR’s performance-based promotion system to beef up the national leadership’s efforts in professionalizing the Philippine bureaucracy.

But Paje was quick to clarify that the quality of their performance will be determined by the survival of the seedling declared in their performance and not merely on the number of seedling planted.

“Remember, the NGP is a national priority program of President Aquino, and this is not for show but for grow. Gone are the days when tree planting activities were just to set world records or just for photo opportunities,” Paje noted.

At the same time, Paje asked “doubting Thomases” to be forthcoming this early with their hesitation to go all out to meet their targets to allow for management to act appropriately in their particular case.

“We will make sure that everybody performs. Kung sino sa inyo ang tingin ay hindi kayang ipatupad ang programang ito, sabihin na ninyo ngayon,” Paje said.

The performance-based incentive will be based on the field officials’ scorecard in the yearly targets given them and will be validated with the use of state-of-the art technology such as satellite mapping and internet-based technology through NGP’s website at the www.ngp.denr.gov.ph

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