Growing a Community from Coffee Trees
In Agaro, Ethiopia, coffee farmers and processors are learning best practices, increasing incomes and paying it forward to their communities.
In Agaro, Ethiopia, coffee farmers and processors are learning best practices, increasing incomes and paying it forward to their communities.
When Hirut Yohannes Darare opened her dairy processing company, she aimed not only to provide for her family, but also to improve the lives of dairy farmers in her community and across Ethiopia.
Five years after completing a project to improve the livelihoods of coffee farmers in Rwanda and Ethiopia, TechnoServe asked researchers to return to participating communities and evaluate our lasting impact.
Can simple business solutions make conservation profitable for smallholder farmers?
The public and private sectors invest in a partnership to help East African coffee farmers increase sustainable agronomic practices.
Using a market-based approach, TechnoServe is helping coffee farmers and cooperatives in Jimma, Ethiopia, turn coffee husk into a thriving market.
Garuke coffee cooperative in Ethiopia was the only employer in the area for workers like Seifu Abafita, but in 2009 was on the brink of closure until support from the Coffee Initiative helped to turn things around.
Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE) was a public-private partnership between TechnoServe, Partners in Food Solutions, and USAID that aimed to increase the competitiveness of the African food processing sector to expand availability of affordable and nutritious foods to local populations. The program benefited more than 1,000 food processors who source from more than 800,000 smallholder farmers in five countries.
Some of the highest quality coffee in the world comes from the Sidama Zone of Ethiopia, produced primarily by 200,000 smallholder farming families, most of whom continue to live in poverty due to small farm sizes and low productivity.
An innovative approach to coffee production in the Sidama region is helping smallholder farmers improve their livelihoods while setting an example of environmental sustainability.