This is Year 4 of the Organic Coffee Project. We have added 80 new farmers in the past year and expanded into 2 new areas, bringing the total number of families to 200 across 8 villages. Forty farmers had mature trees this year (trees planted in Year 1) and they made money selling their coffee, substantially increasing their income. As they keep planting new bushes, and as younger bushes mature, farmers stand to earn good cash to support their families, repair their homes, and send their children for higher education. We have granted about $40,000 total for the coffee project across 4 years, and we already have a few farmers who are doubling their income. The annual per capita income in Nepal was only $1028 in 2018. This year, our farmers earned $200-$2000, which is a dramatic increase for them—and they are poised to make much more in the coming years. Meet the farmers and check out their stories, and read on for details about the project overall.
In the past year CLN brought over 5000 saplings of a few different varieties of coffee from other areas of Nepal to be planted by farmers. We established farmer group cooperatives and subsidized five large nurseries owned by them to provide coffee saplings to everyone who wants to plant more coffee next year. This means that farmers no longer need to buy saplings from other regions (which is expensive and strains the plants). Another 3 farmers have already established additional private nurseries to grow saplings for themselves and to sell to neighbors.
Each farmer group has a managing committee of men and women who run the nurseries, organize the collection of the harvest, and decide how to spend the money that they raise by selling saplings (at minimal cost) to members. Profits from the nurseries can be used for the following year’s nursery, for manual pulping machines, for any coffee-related needs, and/or can be distributed among the group members. In this way the farmer groups and nurseries are quickly becoming self-sustaining.
We have 60,000 coffee bushes already planted and another 50,000 saplings in the nurseries ready to be planted this year, which means coffee is expanding rapidly!! We also had samples of the coffee tested by three independent roasters in the US, and they all reported scores of 84-85. This is fantastic, given that we haven’t even begun to work on processing improvement. Donate now to support the next phase of the program, improving the quality and the production methods.