OUR WORK IN ETHIOPIA
WORKING IN A COUNTRY IN DESPERATE NEED OF CHANGE
According to legend, Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee – discovered when a shepherd noticed how lively and frisky his herd had become after eating some bright red berries. Whether this is true or not, the country certainly takes its coffee very seriously, even holding Coffee Ceremonies, where people dance, very energetically, in honour of the great crop. And it's hardly surprising why.
"Ethiopia; the legendary birthplace of coffee."
All of the coffee produced by Ethiopia is 100% Arabica – a species of far superior quality to other commercial coffee – and is regarded in the country as not just a beverage, but also as medicine and food. The crop also plays a huge part in the country's economy. About 85% of the population earns their livelihood from agriculture, with almost 2,000 square miles of land dedicated to the growing of coffee.
Given the central role that coffee plays in Ethiopia's culture and economy, it goes without saying that the country has experienced particular hardships as the world coffee market has fluctuated over recent years.
THE ISSUES
"Our work in this region has the potential to indirectly benefit up to 40,000 people."
We chose the project area of Kochere Woreda because, of the 5,767 households in this area, over half of them are coffee farmers who have all been badly affected by falling coffee prices. Our work in this region has the potential to help not only these farmers, but also many of the 40,000 people who will indirectly benefit from the project.
Over the last five years, many of these farmers have run out of cash before their next coffee crop was available to sell, causing extreme hardships on their lives. Under severe financial pressure,
some farmers either stopped tending to their coffee plantations, or resorted to borrowing money in return for a share of their crop the following year – leaving them with even less than the year before.
In addition to this cycle of poverty among the farming community, we identified that educational and health facilities often required improvement, and the poor state of the roads, water and electricity supplies were compounding problems. Improving the wider infrastructure was therefore an urgent issue that we sought to improve.
HOW WE'RE HELPING
As 95% of all people did not have clean drinking water within villages such as Hama, we firstly concentrated our efforts on the installation of facilities for water drilling and drinking-water distribution.
"Our first task was to help provide clean drinking-water to the community"
Environmentally-friendly coffee bean-pulping and washing equipment was introduced to farmers involved in the project, to reduce water contamination from the washing stations and to allow the pulp left over to be converted into organic fertiliser for use on the farms.
As well as ensuring that farmers received a fair price for their produce, two additional steps were introduced to help with the families' cash income.
Firstly, the project farmers' incomes were guaranteed from the very beginning in the form of a secondary payment scheme, which ensured their security for the off-season. Secondly, we have introduced an experienced agronomist whose task is to introduce modern agricultural
"Environmentally-friendly coffee bean pulping and washing equipment has been introduced"
practices to the farmers, which in turn will increase both the yield and the quality of the coffee produced, allowing farmers an even greater income from their work.
FAIRTRADE
We are currently working with the
Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, who supply us with the high quality, Fairtrade certified Ethiopian beans that go to make NESCAFÉ Partners' Blend. We are now working with the Fairtrade Foundation with a view to helping the farmers in our project apply for Fairtrade certification, so that their coffee can be used in NESCAFÉ Partners' Blend.
