Permaculture Teacher Training in East Africa

We have just launched our new coffee from our partner co-op, Sustainable Village Resources in Western Kenya which is now available in most stores in Nairobi! It has been a very busy past few months working very closely with our partner organization in devleoping some fantastic sustainably grown coffee. We have been strategizing on getting to bigger local markets across Kenya and boosting yield. It has been a gratifying experience getting more hands on the production and process of it all and working with very good and ethical local roasters which has enhanced great partnerships and relationships to bring Kenya excellent organic coffee which is very rare here.

The farmers have recently boosted yield just through composting techniques that we provided capacity building and training on. The co-op is slowly growing and utilizing every effort to produce invaluable high quality coffee which has projected a magnitude of success to end this year! With the assistance and partnership of the local roasters we have now chosen, they have taken us through the process of fine and high quality grading, roasting and cupping techniques which has been educational for all of us to understand for the final branding purposes. The farmers have been excited to learn that in a matter of months we were able to pull together our social enterprise and create a niche for sustainably grown coffee to go on shelves and create demand for high quality coffee through our roasters.

Rongo, in Migori county (Western Kenya) is blessed with fertile soils and abundant rains but unsustainable agricultural practices have seen an increasing deforestation and soil erosion in the area. The farmers in the area used to make a good income from coffee, but most abandoned their coffee production in favor of sugar production. Despite the good soils and rainfall farmers are struggling to make a living from their sugarcane with volatile markets. The Rongo Coffee Farmers are a group of farmers from all five locations around Rongo region who all still have their coffee trees, but have struggled due to a lack of processing equipment and lack of access to markets and fair prices which is where PRI Kenya partnered with the group to support the farmers in their efforts to create environmentally sustainable livelihoods and helping with climate change mitigation. Through our efforts over the last four years, we have assisted the groups in trainings which has enhanced their growth in production. Together they have worked to develop a deep, rich topsoil by creating mulch out of the coffee cherry pulp. Adding other nitrogen-rich elements to it, they turn it for a full year to create a compost to spread around the base of the trees. This allows the plants to develop a longer root structure, improving moisture content, reducing soil erosion, and resulting in a clean taste, not to mention growing withing a food forest system (shade grown) - Coffee produced on agroforestry farms is broadly referred to as 'shade-grown coffee'.

Shade-grown coffee can benefit farmers and the environment through providing farmers with additional sources of income, in the form of fruit or wood, reduction of farmers’ production costs, as shade-grown coffee generally requires fewer chemical inputs, such as pesticides, raise in coffee quality, which can lead to higher prices for farmers, as shaded coffee trees generally produce slow-maturing, larger beans with a better flavor profile and of course more importantly providing farmers with access to specialty markets that reward shade-grown coffee with premium prices.

This is a very gratifying and humbling time for the farmers as they are now seeing their coffee in stores! We have worked on very attractive packaging with the roasters and added a delightful impact story on the back of the bag which stands out than most brands you will see on the shelves in Kenya! The roasters have worked tirelessly to put together a remarkable Christmas Blend making this only one of its kind giving it a delicious chocolately note and an unforgetable aroma! We appreciate all the support aht has gone through this process and look forward to a longer term brand with micro roasters who align with our very ethic.

Your support has greatly impacted our enterprise program!