and his family with a source of income
“WHY do you enjoy farming?”
That’s a frequent question farmers encounter from curious onlookers or those aspiring to follow in their footsteps. But whether for income, peace of mind, environmental preservation, or more, the answer always differs for every farmer.
Japhet Gurit Tabale, a young farmer from Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur, has several. His specialty is cacao farming, as he’s a cacao farmer and owner of the Cacao Prince.
“I was born to a family of farmers. My mother’s family came from Panay, and my father’s family came from Leyte, who migrated to Agusan del Sur, Mindanao, in the 1970s. My Lola Nilda, my mother’s mother, used to tell me a story about when they first arrived in Bayugan. They were one of the first to plant cacao trees in our town using cacao seeds,” he said.
During his childhood, his parents exposed him to products made from cacao, like homemade tablea or traditional dark chocolates.
His family’s passion for cacao farming lives on, with some 40 to 50-year-old rejuvenated cacao trees still growing on their farm. In 2015, his father planted a second batch using seedlings from the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Research.
Tabale’s religious belief also contributed to his passion for cacao farming. As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, the church taught him to care for their environment and encouraged him to eat healthily.
However, his most compelling reason is that cacao saved him when he was suffering from depression.
“My healing journey started just right on our farm. Looking at our abandoned cacao trees and knowing that I could do something, I began to take care of them so they could be
fruitful again. Surprisingly, there were days when I woke up, I always got excited to visit my cacao nursery to check the progress of the newly planted cacao seeds,” he shared.
Some of the tasks he performs on his farm include caring for the seedlings, which Tabale describes as sensitive. He monitors for the right shade and sunlight and waters the seedlings with the ample amount required to keep the soil moist. He also ensures that pests and diseases don’t attack their farms’ cacao trees, fertilizing the soil, weeding, pruning the branches, and sleeving and harvesting mature fruits.
It’s no secret that cacao is the source of numerous well-loved products, with chocolate high–if not first–on the list. So besides being able to enjoy the benefits of farming, Tabale also harnesses its income-generating potential through value-adding.
From harvesting the cacao fruits, Tabale is also hands-on in the other process that takes the raw ingredient into value-added products available in the local market.
The next step after harvesting is opening the pods to obtain the seeds, which they ferment for six to ten days. Then, they sun-dry the fermented beans before moving on to the sorting and selection stages. Once they’ve acquired good-quality beans, they roast them to develop the flavor, kill the bacteria, reduce the moisture, and loosen the outer shell.
Next comes winnowing, the process of removing the cocoa bean’s outer shell while ensuring the meat remains intact. Then, Tabale moves on to grinding the meat to powder or paste, depending on the products’ demands. From there, he takes the necessary steps, like cooling, molding, and more, before achieving the final product for packaging and delivery.
“We manufacture and supply pure cacao tablea or 100 percent dark chocolates. It’s our best-seller. We also have roasted Cacao nibs, Cacao fruits, and roasted corn powder. We are still continuously working with the DA-YFC (DA-Youth Farmers Challenge) to improve our processing, building our products, and buying new machinery to produce new cacao-based products such as cocoa powder and cocoa butter,” Tabale said.
He added that their family farm’s long-term goal of producing sweet yet healthy chocolates, which they hope to achieve soon.
Tabale has high hopes for his family’s cacao farm, especially since it has given him a renewed purpose and a legacy to maintain–all while sharing in the mission of protecting and preserving Earth’s natural resources.