In 1897 English settlers decided to try and grow coffee in Kenya’s Kiambu county. Thanks to favourable climatic conditions, production has grown to become one of the largest agricultural products intended for foreign trade.

Today this sector comprises 800,000 small producers affiliated with 500 cooperatives. The network of small producers holds 75% of the land intended for production, compared to the 3,000 private companies holding 25% of the land, which, however, thanks to intensive production and the use of pesticides and irrigation systems, has a higher yield per hectare.

Since the 2000s, production has however decreased by two-thirds, as most of the plants are now old, therefore unproductive, and the soil is no longer fertile because of intensive use and the absence of irrigation systems, which exposed the plantations to periods of severe drought. Due to the lack of training, more effective and sustainable cultivation techniques were not developed, and this in turn has resulted in producers not being able to reduce the costs of managing plantations, improve yield and treating soil.

The cooperatives to which coffee producers are associated, deal with the first processing of coffee. Cooperatives are however inefficient and poorly organised. Most managerial staff are made up of men aged between 50 and 75; young people and women are therefore not represented and a generational change is not favoured. Managerial staff have always managed the structures using old models devoid of technological tools that do not allow for a traceable and transparent supply chain in line with international standards. There is also a lack of strategic vision and incentives for cooperatives to invest in training, infrastructure improvements and new machinery. All this has resulted in increased operating costs, exposing the cooperatives to corruption and indebtedness. In addition, obsolete machinery and old-fashioned post-production techniques contribute to increase both waste and environmental impact.

There is also a market problem. Kenyan coffee is one of the best coffees in the world  and 90% of production is exported to the international market. However, the beans are little valued on the local market because many consumers see it is a colonial product and because of the existing lack of skills and local roasting equipment. As selling green coffee on the international market sidestepping the system of brokers is difficult for cooperatives, the only way revenue can be increased is by promoting local coffee consumption, which, despite a growth, remains below its potential.

These problems are experienced by farmers who, like Francis from the Kiambu County, demand greater connection between direct coffee producers, government agencies, research organisations and commercial organisations, as well as exchange programmes between producers and stakeholders aimed at increasing knowledge and exchanging information. James, another farmer, points the finger at the market, which does not currently guarantee good prices  for producers. In his opinion, this limits those investments (new irrigation systems or more productive varieties of plants, etc.) deemed to be essential to counteract the ongoing climate change.

Lawrence, a third farmer, believes that there are great expectations regarding the increase in direct producers’ profits and also hopes for a strengthening of the local market, both to have access to coffee, and, above all, to increase profits avoiding the intermediaries on the market that retain most of the profits.

The project tackles all these issues. First of all, by improving coffee producers’ knowledge of plant cultivation techniques – making them resilient to climate change and resistant to diseases – and soil treatment and yield, but also by promoting beekeeping to produce larger and better quality coffee beans. The project also focuses on the growth of cooperatives through the introduction of more efficient, eco-friendly technologies that in the medium-long term will allow cooperatives to reduce expenses and increase profits, and by investing in management training and digitalisation. Local consumption is also encouraged, also by using the organic waste of wet processing to create new products (biscuits and cascara flour), training women and young people in selecting and processing coffee and starting small local coffee-roasting businesses run by the cooperatives themselves.

Project overview

The project operates on three levels:

• Coffee producers improve the efficiency, sustainability and quality of production by increasing their knowledge of plant cultivation techniques, soil treatment and yield, by adopting climate-resilient and disease-resistant production techniques, and by developing beekeeping aimed at improving coffee bean quality.
• Local cooperatives operating in coffee first-stage processing will introduce good governance practices, by strengthening the skills of managerial staff and introducing good product traceability practices, as well as reducing their environmental impact by adopting modern and environmentally-friendly processing techniques.
• The cooperatives will improve their ability to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the local market, by using the organic waste of wet processing to create new products (biscuits and cascara flour), improving the skills of young people and women in the selection and processing of coffee, starting small local coffee-roasting businesses at cooperative level and creating local coffee brands.

Beneficiaries

• 2,720 producers and 9,460 small-scale coffee producers
• 36 male members of managerial staff and 100 employees (32 women, 68 men) of the four beneficiary cooperatives
• 60 young women and 60 young men will be trained in coffee tasting and processing

Through an integrative project, supported by Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione San Paolo, four coffee demonstration fields are to be set up at beneficiary cooperatives to encourage the adoption among farmers of innovative techniques and applied technologies that lead to increased production, reduced costs and general environmental improvement.

The FarmShield technology system involves using solar-powered sensors to collect information on soil and atmospheric conditions in real time that are matched with weather and crop data to provide farmers with both information on plantation conditions, soil and crop yields and recommendations for improving their production.

We aim to reduce fertilizer and pesticide use by about 25 percent and improve soil and coffee bean quality in 4 demonstration fields.