It seems like the number of coffee drinkers is on the rise but the crop is on the decline. So. how can you and I help in this aspect, and what is being done from a policy aspect?
Less than two weeks ago, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry rolled out a scheme for ‘Development Support for Coffee in Traditional Areas: Replantation’ as a Sub-Component of the Scheme ‘Integrated Coffee Development Project During the Medium Term Framework (MTF) Period: Development Support to Stakeholders’ - in lay man’s terms, this scheme can help small farmers to get subsidy and help for their coffee plantations. You can know more about this, here.
The government is also attempting to amend the decades-old Coffee Act of 1942 and replace it with the Coffee (Promotion and Development Bill) of 2022.
‘Open Sky’ schools have also helped a lot of farmers. Farmers themselves have selected small pieces of land wherein they can demonstrate efficienct techniques to other farmers. These serve as a learning ground for small and marginal farmers. They learn about recent advances in science, hydrology and crop productivity, and most importantly, learn how to adopt appropriate agricultural practices to help better adapt to climate change.
World Coffee Research has also launched ‘Innovea’ - a Global Coffee Breeding Network with an aim to transform coffee agriculture for climate-resilience.
Apart from this global movement, Blue Harvest, a program from Catholic Relief Services (C.R.S.), started in 2014, helps Central American coffee farmers restore and protect their water resources, for their benefit and for others who share the watershed downstream.
In the United States, Counter Culture Coffee has been a major player in the rise of craft coffee in the United States. The Durham, N.C.-based roaster supplies beans to high-end restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores across the U.S. and runs barista training centers in 11 cities, and in recent years, the company has taken on a new role: Helping coffee farmers adapt to climate change. Counter Culture began working with nearby Duke University to understand more about how climate change is affecting coffee production and how farmers are responding. From organic composting to using a web-based toolkit, this has definitely shown results for the coffee growers.
Smart agriculture and artificial intelligence have also empowered farmers across Brazil and India. In India, Blockchain and AI related government schemes have helped coffee. Growers understand the exact time for irrigation and cultivation - metrics that were disturbed by weathering effects of the climate. The Coffee Board of India launched a blockchain-based electronic marketplace for farmers which connects farmers, exporters, curers, roasters and international buyers can join and buy direct locally sourced and organic coffee at a global front.
What also directly helps from a consumer point of view, is awareness. When we go to a cafe we don’t think about the situation of coffee farmers, but it will help if we do.
I spoke to Jarnail Singh , the founder of Ikviti Coffee. He defines himself as a home coffee roaster and the beginning of Ikviti was very organic for him. His everyday cup of coffee made him ask a few questions, which lead to him visiting coffee growers across Coorg and Chikmaglur and understanding the issues they face. ‘Ikviti’ talks about Social ‘Equity’, the sense of us being ‘Ik’ or ‘One’ and how our coming together can change lives. Ikviti Coffee is a movement to bring about citizen-led social change, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, through specialty coffee. The concept as he says is simple: setting up cozy coffee hubs within gated residential societies. Serve exceptional coffee, engage with residents and work with them to bring about change at hyper-local level. Launched in January 2024, the cafe aims to spread awareness regarding coffee agriculture and the issues our growers face, plus, it also employes people from vulnerable communities and socially pushed back individuals. A place to connect beyond work and across generations and classifications, you can know more about this at ikviti.coffee, and visit the cafe, here.
That’s it for this edition, folks. While this article was more from an environmental and consumer point of view, in the next edition, I am going to look at sustainable coffees, insights from some of the biggest coffee chains in the country, and another example of how businesses led with sustainability can change the whole landscape.
Till then, you can read some really interesting pieces here:
References
Climate change Fairtrade coffee.pdf
India's brewing concerns on coffee production - India Business and Trade (tpci.in)
Coffee & Sustainability (coffeeandscience.org)
Sustainable Coffee: A Guide to Ethical and Eco-Friendly Practices (thecoffeeguru.net)Growth at FCF India | Carbon Finance | Sustainable Communities | NBS | Future-proofing Businesses
This article is also published on the author's blog. illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.
