Internet and ICT for Coffee Growers in Colombia

"(…) I would like that another coffee growers like me would also have an internet connection. It’s a technology that has been very good for us, and has given us many opportunities; from consulting the price of coffee, and applications that allow us to identify crop diseases such a plant pests and treat them; to even (allow) that my son can study, do research and his homework here on the farm, without having to travel to the town on Sundays(…)”. Oveida, one of the coffee farmers benefited by the project.

In the last three months, our project transformed itself to amplify the population that we look to benefit and we want to update you about these changes. We consolidate a structure in our team to respond to the project tasks and designed our activities to impact this new beneficiaries. In the farms that already had connectivity, we installed five IoT devices, that obtain data from the air and soil, to allow the coffee growers to have more accurate (and real-time information) on crops, temperature, humidity, soil conditions, among others.

We deployed the first version of an App for coffee growers, (that will get data from the sensors/devices) and we are designing more content for ICT training and the six Innovation laboratories for young people that look to involve this population in the creation of solutions for agricultural needs. In addition, we are working every day to improve our connectivity tech.

“In conjunction with offer truthful and real time data to engineers and farmers, this precision agriculture technology also offers traceability. It is possible to use this data to monitor all stages of coffee crop” Matteo, an Italian IoT devices and APP developer now involved in our project.

The strengthened team that now works on the project, made us pass from one to two people in the territory. This ICT Enablers will train 100 coffee growers, 30 teachers, 30 women, and 30 young people from the community by the end of the year. Their work will also allow us to register the new users and update our current databases.

Using our new information gathering tools we hope obtain -in the next month-, a complete, understandable and accurate profile of all the users to be able to offer them adjusted activities to their digital and productive needs related to our project, using the TVWS technology.

We made available to users the first version of the web application that provides information and analysis for improving the coffee value chain. Among its main functions are the management of all the farm activities and the recording of productive data to receive analysis and recommendations of their crops. In March, we will validate this version with the user, getting to know what can be more useful and more attractive to them, to help us to improve the application in the second version that will be released on May.

The leadership of LAVAZZA Foundation, ALO, MAKAIA has been key to the project. The synergy of knowledge, innovation and efforts to provide tools to transform lives is our main purpose and with the donations at GlobalGiving we know this will continue to be possible.

Links:

• Our partner's website
• Our website

Alo&Partners and MAKAIA continue to work with a main purpose: strengthen the capacities of coffee growers and transform their lives thanks the use and adoption of ICT tools that can be incorporated in their daily activities to improve their productivity and value chain.

In the last months we were working in constituted a new team of professional that help us develop the trainings and get the information we need to be able to measure some of the changes that the projects have had in the life of coffee growers, their families and the community. It’s been a long process, but we were able to find a local professional with knowledge of the area that will be working in the update of the content and methodology of the new trainings and the search of data we´ll use to take the next step. 

We continue to provide connectivity in 5 farms and 2 schools. In the continued interaction with the community, we identified some reparations that the structure of La Guajira School needed in order to keep provide their services and work as a point of encounter to the community, (as well as being a key element in the sustainability of the project), and for this reason we were able to provide help to make the reparations of the ceiling and provide the materials to that end. 

In the months of September and October, MAKAIA was invited to present the project and their work in general in numerous events (national and international) and we used these opportunities to keep showing the project and enrolled new allies that find value in this initiative.

What comes next?

The project will improve farmes productivity by implementing an information and data plataform in order to train coffee growers in topics such as agricultural information, health and education, among others. Besides, the platform will provide real-time information on market prices, weather, temperature, among others. Where no connectivity is available SMS will be used. The 5 farmers that also implement the IoT devices, will have additional information, for instance from sensor that measures and reports in real time the humidity of the coffee crop and that based on this information the coffee grower can make decisions, and if possible related to Coffee Traceability.

“Innovation Labs” will be created in the schools, farms and 4 local public libraries to foster activities of co-creation, resolution and test Tech ideas. Youth will have a key role in these labs and will support rural coffee growers in adopting technology.

Thank you for being part of this project and helping us to provide development, life quality and opportunities to more coffee growers families.