Highlights
Free HIV testing and counseling - awareness raising on farmers' healthcare
One of the pressing issues in the North West region of Cameroon, where agriculture plays a principal role in income generating, is health. According to the National Demographic Survey of 2004, the HIV prevalence in Cameroon was 5.5% of the total 2 million inhabitants, with the North West region having the highest prevalence of 8.7% of the total 19.4 million inhabitants.
Lam Vien Coffee Cooperative in its first crop
A large number of the coffee farmers in Vietnam are dependent on the local collectors for processing coffee and for credit. They borrow money from the collectors with high interest rates (at 2.-3.5% per month) not only for inputs but often also for family expenses. While generally such interest rates strongly reduce farm income, in the worst cases they lead to farmers having to sell their coffee at low prices when their coffee cherries are still unripe. Because of such practices, various farmers have fallen in a debt trap, where they need to borrow to survive and work hard just to be able to pay of their debts.
From price-takers to market-makers
Ugandan project farmers become part of a farmer-owned company, the Uganda Coffee Farmers Alliance (UCFA)
Coffee World Radio Cameroon: 2nd show
Today the radio show "Coffee World" talks about Good Agricultural Practices and Farmer Field Schools with project agronomist Ishmael Chefon Ndofor and Project officers Emmanuel, Wara Festus and Mey Chrisantus. Duration: approximately 30 minutes.
Pre-financing fertilizers in Honduras
Starting in 2008, the project "Professionalizing the coffee supply chain in Honduras", jointly supported by SOGIMEX S.A. (ECOM) and DE Foundation has pre-financed fertilizers to 453 small coffee producers. An average increase of 30% in productivity was observed right after the first year. With time, productivity can be doubled or tripled by applying good agricultural practices and the right fertilizers.
Solar dryer - a way forward for better quality and income of producers
In the Sustainable Coffee Project in Colombia, supporting project farmers to build solar dryers is an important activity that has brought a highly visible impact.
"It's not easy to get their coffee!"
After 8.5 years of involvement and 3 project phases (initialisation, expansion and business development), our project in Peru will come to an end in September 2011. From a humble start in 2003 with a handful of Farmer Field Schools (FFS), the project has helped to build a fully-fledged cooperative that operates independently in the upper segments of the international coffee market. In this article we will look at the journey of the producers and the project team.
Coffee World Radio from Cameroon
As part of its coffee promotion work, the Cameroon project regularly broadcasts a show called "Coffee World" on several local radio stations. The show usually involves a short update on the coffee market, explanations on technical activities such as pruning and processing, interviews with national and international coffee experts and so on.
Colombian video
During the last project steering group meeting, a film crew accompanied the project team of the FNC and the donor representatives (Dutch government and DE Foundation) and came up with a nice 15 minute impression of the project, the farmers involved and the roles of the various partners.
Mushrooming business in Cameroon
Inspired by both Ken Calvert of Renertech and the ZERI Foundation (winner of the 2009 SCAA Sustainability Awards), the DE Foundation project in Cameroon decided to add an activity on the promotion of mushroom cultivation on coffee pulp. Mushrooms can be a valuable dietary addition in a region such as the North West of Cameroon where food is rich in carbohydrates but often poor in protein. Besides dietary advantages, mushrooms can also contribute to diversification of income. Before kicking off, a small research grant was made available to look into the size, location and structure of the Cameroonian mushroom market as well as peoples' perception of mushrooms as foodstuff. Afterall, growing mushrooms only to find out after the first harvest is available that people do not like to eat them is a waste of time and money. It turned out we did not have to worry, uptake of this initiative grew as quickly as the mushrooms themself, so to speak. Curious...
Projects
To further sustainability of mainstream coffee & tea, DE Foundation executes projects all around the globe, working in particular with small-scale producers.
About DE Foundation
The DE Foundation was established by Sara Lee in 2002 as an independent foundation.The Board comprises of 5 members, all of whom have a passion for sustainability.