This Project is focused on rehabilitating over 500 smallholder coffee farms to enhance coffee quality while reducing the effort required by farmers. In 2023, we conducted four agricultural training sessions with all participating farmers. These trainings achieved three key goals: improving farming techniques, minimizing environmental impact, and ensuring compliance with Beyond Trade Standards.
1. Provide smallholder farmers with training to enhance the quality of their crops, which leads to higher prices from specialty coffee buyers. Gaining access to premium pricing aligns with the core goal of BTIF in reducing poverty within smallholder farming communities.
2. Equip smallholder farmers with the knowledge to lessen the environmental impact of their farming practices, focusing primarily on reducing water consumption and agrochemical use.
3. Assist participating farmers in meeting Beyond Trade Standards through a 3-4 year process, ensuring full compliance for long-term sustainability.
By helping farmers enhance their crop quality to meet higher specialty coffee grades, the agricultural training program will directly contribute to poverty reduction efforts by increasing income for smallholder farmers, their families, and communities. Through access to premium pricing, such as that offered by specialty coffee companies like BTIF supporter Progeny Coffee, farmers can see immediate income increases of at least 20% above local market prices.
Additionally, the training program will guide smallholder farmers in minimizing the environmental impact of their operations while improving social standards within their communities. Farmers will be gradually brought into compliance with the Beyond Trade Social and Environmental Standards, with a focus on standards 3, 12, and 14. Environmentally, based on the BTIF team’s prior experience, water usage during the coffee washing process can be reduced by up to 98% through the implementation of best water filtration practices. This dramatically decreases the amount of polluted water released into local ecosystems. The program will also help farmers improve soil health using organic inputs, reducing agrochemical usage over time and supporting local carbon sequestration efforts.
On the social front, the training program will facilitate compliance with the Beyond Trade Social and Environmental Standards, focusing on eliminating child labor, boosting school attendance, and improving labor standards by adhering to local labor laws and relevant ILO guidelines. Key standards addressed in the training will include standards 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 15.