Provide Freeplay radios to coffee farmers in the remote hills of Rwanda. Farmers can increase income and coffee quality through radio access to market prices, farming techniques and weather reports.
More than 400,000 Rwandan farmers and their families are working to revitalize the country’s coffee industry and return Rwandan coffee to the global market. Many are widows from the 1994 genocide. Middlemen called “coyotes” mislead them as to the correct market price of coffee beans. This project works through existing farmer cooperatives to provide reliable market transparency and farming advice. On average, 100 farmers gather to listen to one Freeplay radio to hear this vital information.
Experienced coffee farmers gather weekly in groups of 100 at existing co-ops created with the help of Texas A&M University. Each group uses a Freeplay radio to listen to coffee programs we produce with experts, which are aired throughout Rwanda.
Isolated coffee farmers can access information that helps them grow high-quality beans sold in specialty coffee stores worldwide. They can demand the correct market price for their beans, thereby earning higher incomes to take care of their families.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
