Increasing Income for Smallholder Coffee Farmers
Africa Now has launched an exciting new venture in Rwanda with the ethical coffee company, Union Hand-Roasted. Comic Relief is funding this groundbreaking project, which improves the lives of smallholder coffee producers and the wider community. Farmers are being assisted to enhance the quality of their crop, enabling them to command a better price, whilst developing their knowledge of market demands.
Background
The project focuses on rural communities in Maraba, in the Huye district, and Gashonga, in the Rusizi district, in Rwanda. Over the last 5 years, these communities have begun producing high quality premium coffee, which guarantees higher returns for farmers. Many young people, however, are unaware of the financial benefits to be gained from ethically produced coffee and reject farming as a career choice, turning to alternative income-generating activities. With an infection rate of around 3%, HIV/AIDS also has a major impact on the lives of communities across the country. In 2005, around 210,000 children under the age of 17 had lost a mother or father or both parents to AIDS. This has left many child-headed households in Rwanda, therefore increasing the need to offer young people realistic employment opportunities which will help them support households devastated by the disease.
Project Objectives
- Enable coffee farmers to continue to improve incomes
- Secure the benefits achieved by the coffee farmers against future risks
- Encourage the extension of these benefits to a larger number of households within these communities
We are delighted to be working with Union Hand-Roasted on this great opportunity, maximising the benefit of coffee production for these hardworking farmers.
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