Talungon Coconut Sugarcane Farmers Association of Barangay San Jose, Sta. Catalina is a recipient of Philippine Coconut Authority - KEDP under Coconut Intercropping/Livestock Integration Project (CIP - Coffee CY 2018/CLP – Cattle CY 2019) and Coconut Cacao Enterprise Development Project (CCEDP) CY 2015.

In preparation to the implementation of CFIDP –DA HVCDP activities, Mr. Marvin E. Ibrahim (Coconut Development Officer of Sta. Catalina Negros Oriental) conducted field monitoring and validation to two (2) recipients of the said project last March 1, 2023.

During the conduct of monitoring activities, Mr. Ibrahim validated Mr. Samuel Pajunar of San Pedro, Sta. Catalina, a recipient under CCEDP who has two hundred (200) stabilized cacao trees that are bearing and at vegetative stage. More so, at the same barangay, Mr. Sanny Abante has three (300) hundred stabilized cacao trees with more or less 95% are bearing while the rest are at vegetative stage.

The cacao farmer beneficiaries shared their experiences on its harvest that according to them, it varies in volume because it depends on the climate as it has a great impact to their produce especially when typhoons came and during pest infestation, it is expected to have a lesser harvest. They were also told by Mr. Ibrahim on possible interventions to undertake especially during pest infestation as to the hints that the pods are infested and its management to suppress or totally eliminate the infestation. Further, Mr. Sanny Abante’s harvested cacao seeds were dried, roasted and processed into “tablea”. In fact, Mr. Abante shared “after moulding the tablea it must be air dried before packaging to avoid moisture dew on its package. Hence, he marketed his tablea in the Municipality of Sta. Catalina and its neighboring cities/municipalities.

The coconut farmer beneficiaries of TACOSUFA whose cacao trees are bearing has started to reap their produce and slowly established other source of income on top of their revenue from coconut.

Photo Documentation taken during the CIP Cacao Monitoring (Sanny Abante) last March 1, 2023