Coffee

Millions of cups of coffee are consumed every day by people around the world. Read about the benefits of coffee to people, communities, and the planet.

In part one of this new three-part series, Crop to Cup, learn how farmers in East Africa play a role in the coffee that ends up in consumers’ cups around the world, no matter how you take your coffee. Look out for parts two and three, which cover processing and quality control.

After growing up watching his family grow coffee on their land in the Sidama region of Ethiopia, Amanuel Belay followed suit. But years of repetitive farming practices dulled his success. An environmentally sustainable TechnoServe program changed all that – and encouraged Amanuel to start helping other farmers.

In an important ecological buffer zone of northeastern Honduras, farmers are learning how to improve their coffee productivity while preserving the natural landscape. A TechnoServe program helped farmers raise productivity by 200% while still ensuring the environmental sustainability of the largest protected land in the country.

Follow two coffee farmers as they go about their day in Honde Valley, Zimbabwe, which is known for its prized Arabica coffee.

Follow coffee farmer Noella Rwizibuka and her family as they go about their day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Global coffee prices are rising after several years at near-historic lows that prompted many farmers in Central America to immigrate elsewhere. But higher prices alone are not enough to sustain progress. To ensure long-term, profitable incomes, farmers need support establishing long-lasting market connections, developing climate-resilient growing techniques, and diversifying their incomes.

After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico lost an estimated 80% of its coffee trees, crippling an entire industry and leaving many coffee farmers reeling. Today, TechnoServe is working to revive the industry by helping thousands of smallholder coffee farmers significantly increase their yields and boost their resilience to future threats.

In this series, we check back with TechnoServe program participants previously featured on our blog, documenting how their lives have changed and progressed. In our previous story on Juliana Solís Barón, an entrepreneur and café owner in Peru, she was learning how to reinvent her business in response to strict lockdown restrictions. Find out how she is doing now, five months later.

Women play an essential role in the success of small farms and agricultural businesses around the world. But despite the vital role of women farmers, they continue to face inequality and obstacles to earning a decent living. Guillaume Le Cunff, CEO of Nespresso, William Warshauer, CEO of TechnoServe, and Mefthe Tadesse, East Africa Regional Director for TechnoServe, discuss ways to promote gender equality in coffee farming.