Brazil Sera Negra - Ended

"Professionalising coffee farming practices and improving market access on family-based coffee farms in Serra Negra"

Introduction

The Brazil project was implemented in 2 phases and ran from 2002 to 2010. At the start of the project and the first phase in 2002, approximately 40 producers were supported on an individual basis to help improve their farm management. The project agronomist regularly visited project farms to dispense advice and support. In some respects this worked very well. Farm management did improve as witnessed by increasing efficiency and also coffee quality was enhanced.

However, when in 2006 a second phase was initiated, it became obvious that the previous approach was not suitable to meet the more challenging objectives of phase 2. In phase 2, a number of 250 farmers were part of the project and attending to all of them on an individual basis showed the limitations of such an approach. A less obvious drawback was that following advice does not necessarily equip farmers to become better decision-makers themselves. In fact, an excessive reliance on outside advice does not bode well for achieving sustainable farming.

Against this background the second project phase took a broader view, more in line with other DE Foundation projects and required more active participation by farmers. Training was carried out at group level instead of the individual and was based on generally accepted adult education principles instead of more common top-down approaches. This change in methodology was challenging for all involved, but ultimately successful in most, but not all, respects.

During phase 2, UTZ certification was initiated. This proved very challenging: UTZ in Brazil was targeting large scale farms and its Code of Conduct did not take small-scale farming realities into account. While abiding laws is something we favour, not all laws are that easy to abide by. Particularly in societies such as Brazil where large socio-economic disparities exist and laws seem to be designed with ideal situations in mind. For instance, the legal requirements that come with employing seasonal labour are so demanding and costly that small-scale farmers simply can not comply. In long discussions with UTZ and with Brazilian auditing bodies, this and other issues were acknowledged and integrated into the 2009 Utz Code of Conduct. One of the projects achievements has been to make UTZ certification more accessible to small-scale farmers in Brazil.

To institutionalise farmers' access to services that enabled improvements and maintain access to certification, attempts were made to organise farmers into formal groups. This ultimately failed due to a variety of reasons. A historic distrust of group initiatives and a attitude of individualism played important roles. The certification process was expected to work as a catalyst in group formation by providing a (financial) incentive for farmers to be part of the group, but the economics of UTZ certification in Brazil for small-scale farmers are still not attractive enough, despite big improvements. In fact, the project group up to the time of writing (early 2011) remains the only UTZ certified group of small-scale farmers in Brazil.

Focus of the project

To help producers get better access to the coffee market with higher profitability through the improvement of product quality and production processes.

Activities

• Training through Farmer Field Schools (FFS)
• Provide input to adapt UTZ to small-scale farming conditions
• Implementing UTZ certification
• Assisting producers to organize formally

Results

The quality of the coffee has improved because of better harvesting and drying practices. The efficiency and productivity of the farms have increased because of better fertilisation and pruning methods. Producers got used to participating in FFS and are now more active than before within their community, therefore strengthening social coherence. Initially 120 small-scale producers became UTZ Certified. At the end of the project 73 of these maintained their certification, the others dropped out due to unsatisfactory prices and premiums for certified coffee. Still, most of the producers that discontinued their certification do indicate that they continue to apply practices that they learned during the certification process, such as the use protective equipment and better handling and storage of pesticides.

Partners

• Decisão Consultoria
• Quota Mille

Contact information

Mr. Fernando Gonçalvez: fer.javas@gmail.com

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