THE TECHNICAL Education and Skills Development Authority and Nestlé Philippines on Wednesday formed a partnership to upskill workers and trainers in the Robusta coffee production sector.

TESDA’s Coffee Production Level II Program and Scholarship provides enterprise-based competency training in coffee farming to aspiring ‘agripreneurs’, particularly smallholder farmers and indigenous peoples.

“With this program, we will enable the farmers and our IP coffee growers to produce quality beans that are at par with the standards of Nestle Philippines. We will also be able to help them increase their yields and help them pursue a more sustainable livelihood,” TESDA Director General Isidro Lapeña said.

“This partnership will scale the impact of the work we do in TESDA for the farmers and IPs. We also commit our pool of highly-skilled trainers and TESDA facilities as additional learning sites to ensure that we can accommodate as many farmer-beneficiaries as possible,” he added.

Through the program, TESDA will train trainers for effective conduct of the curriculum and will provide a scholarship fund under its Program on Accelerating Farm School Establishment so that eligible farmers can enhance their knowledge and skills in planting, maintaining and harvesting coffee.

Enrollees will learn to adopt an entrepreneurial approach in managing small farm operations of one to 10 hectares and gain the skills to effectively market their coffee beans to buyers such as Nestlé.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to help uplift the lives of Robusta coffee farmers by improving their coffee yields and incomes. Since 1962, Nestlé Philippines has been working alongside farmers to develop the coffee growing industry through a value-chain approach that emphasizes the value of multisectoral collaborations,” Kais Marzouki, chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines, said.

“Our partnership with TESDA aims to upskill more farmers through meaningful interventions that enable sustainable and profitable coffee production,” he added.

For its pilot phase, the Coffee Production Level II program will be offered to farmers in Bukidnon and Sultan Kudarat where 80 percent of the country’s coffee is grown.

TESDA granted a Technical Vocational Education and Training Certificate to Nestlé’s Bukidnon Integrated Coffee Center to serve as the hub for all coffee production training for farmer beneficiaries sponsored by TESDA scholarships.

The coffee center is located in Malaybalay, Bukidnon and was established with the help of the Department of Agriculture under the National Convergence Initiative.