Rooted and Rising

Marking a milestone

Biruta was not alone in placing his faith in better farming practices. In 2025, TechnoServe achieved a major milestone: we delivered training to one million coffee farmers since 2009. Across 16 countries in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia, this training has enabled smallholder coffee farmers to improve their incomes, strengthen climate resilience, and adopt more sustainable farming practices.

Improved coffee farming is a powerful tool in the effort to eliminate poverty. Despite coffee’s global significance, millions of families growing the crop do not earn a decent income. Like Biruta, many of these coffee growers are challenged by small farm sizes, low yields, and increasing risks to their production that lock them in a cycle of poverty.

Regenerative farming practices can help break this cycle. A TechnoServe study published in April 2025 with support from Nestlé, JDE Peet’s, and the Rudy & Alice Ramsey Foundation quantified the transformative potential of such practices. Looking across nine leading origins, it found that the transition toward regenerative production can boost farmers’ incomes by an average of 62%, increase coffee exports by 30%, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.5 million tons of CO₂e annually.

Such training also generates a strong return on investment. Every dollar invested in TechnoServe coffee projects completed between 2022 and 2025 generated $4.71 of additional income for farmers and others in the coffee value chain.

Over more than a decade, TechnoServe’s coffee programs have become more impactful and inclusive. In 2009, just 26% of participating farmers were women, reflecting many of the inequalities in coffee value chains. By 2024, TechnoServe had increased that share to 47% through continuous innovation in how it staff projects, designs training, and recruits farmers.

“I feel happy and motivated”

For Biruta and his family, the impact of training was transformative and lasting. When he started attending training in 2013, he harvested 756 kilograms of coffee cherries. Two years later, production stood at more than 1,300 kilograms. Even years after Biruta’s training in Coffee Farm College ended, yields on the farm kept improving. In 2024, he harvested nearly 2,000 kilograms.

The improved yields, coupled with higher coffee prices, have meant that Biruta and his family are earning much more. The farm is no longer scraping by. It’s now a source of employment, as Biruta hires laborers to help with mulching and harvesting.

The increased income has helped improve the family’s standard of living and prospects for the future. Biruta installed electricity and water in his house and purchased a cow as a source of milk for home consumption and income. He has also been able to comfortably pay for his children’s school fees, and his oldest has already graduated from university. Biruta expects his children will have an easier life than he has had.

“I feel happy and motivated because, through the adoption of best practices, my coffee production has increased both in volume and quality, and the price has also risen,” he said.

Training the next million farmers

TechnoServe believes in a future with coffee, as well. In partnership with leading coffee roasters, governments, foundations, and generous individuals, TechnoServe is committed to providing its proven, transformative coffee training to more farmers around the world.

“A million trained farmers is a remarkable achievement, but millions more still need the chance to build a viable livelihood while protecting the landscapes that sustain coffee. We are excited to work with our partners to scale this work even further,” said Paul Stewart, TechnoServe’s global coffee director

Securing a Future for Coffee in Puerto Rico

After Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, the future of coffee on the island looked bleak. An estimated 80% of the coffee trees on the island were destroyed. 

“We were at risk of losing Puerto Rico’s centuries-old coffee sector. That would have been an incalculable loss not only for thousands of farming families but also for the whole island,” said Alejandro Marchand, manager of TechnoServe’s Revivamos Nuestro Café (Let’s Bring Back Our Coffee) project.

Launched in 2018 with support from Nespresso, the Colibri Foundation, the Hispanic Federation, and the Peter Alfond Foundation, the project trained more than 1,200 coffee farming households in regenerative agriculture practices over the past seven years. Of those households, 77% reported increased yields. 

Students in Puerto Rico putting skills into practice after completing hands-on, school-based coffee agronomy training led by TechnoServe.
(TechnoServe / Olivia Sakai)

“The changes are evident: in the soil, in productivity, in resistance to pests, and in your pocket. These practices take care of the farm, the economy, and the future,” said Carlos Cordero, the smallholder coffee farmer featured on our cover who participated in the program. “I feel secure and motivated as a young coffee farmer.” His success led him to become a TechnoServe farmer trainer so that others in his community could improve their coffee production. 

With support from project partners, the initiative also helped farmers plant 11 million coffee trees. But securing coffee’s long-term future in Puerto Rico doesn’t just require new trees. Only 5% of the island’s coffee farmers are under the age of 35. 

To cultivate the next generation of coffee growers, Revivamos Nuestro Café also implemented an agronomy course in 14 public middle and high schools. Teachers received training in coffee agronomy so that they could instruct their students. 

By the end of the project, 900 students received short video instructions with hands-on experience on demonstration plots to learn about the opportunities in the coffee value chain and the skills needed to unlock them.