Charged up and online

With a high value-to-weight ratio, coffee is a crop often favoured by farmers in remote areas. However this can mean that the growers are cut off from technical support, and production levels can suffer. In the 1990s many domestic coffee markets were liberalised: as part of this process, parastatal agencies, that at one time both bought farmers' beans and provided credit and services, were heavily pruned or else rooted out, and farmers were left to sink or swim in the open market. Further hit by the global fall in commodity prices, smallholder farmers have struggled to make a living from coffee, and there has been little money available either at national or household levels to boost production through efficient use of inputs or technology.

credit: Ben Ochan

Farmer Participatory Research is a phenomenon which has boomed during the same period that coffee has suffered, yet until recently there has been little contact between them. One project¹ that has sought to close that gap has been working with smallholders in three departments in Colombia. It is helping farmers and scientists to collaborate in developing an appropriate technology style solution to Coffee Berry Borer (Hypothenemus hampei), the most damaging of all coffee pests.

Wary of rushing in too quickly, the researchers spent four months visiting the areas with extension agents, getting to know the smallholders. This was followed by individual meetings with farmers to gain a clear picture of their knowledge and concerns. Only after this information had been assimilated were Participatory Rural Appraisal diagnostic sessions held, to identify problems and brainstorm ideas that could be the subjects of research.

The project then set up tests for the various ideas that had been agreed - in both laboratories and farmers' fields. Often the farmers adapted the scientists' recommendations, in order to make them easier or cheaper to adopt; others they rejected. For example a new CBB sampling method was rejected as being too time consuming, and traps designed to capture CBB in the coffee groves, despite being initially popular, turned out to be difficult to service, and became neglected during seasons when the number of insects caught was low. However, trap covers installed in the coffee washing stations, which stopped borers escaping and re-infesting neighbouring groves, proved popular. They caught thousands of insects and were easy to monitor and service.

In general the project was very popular with the farmers. 'You made us feel important as people', one of the farmers said. They have continued to experiment with new ideas, and organised themselves into work groups, like 'Los Pilosos' - (The Charged Up Ones). The whole process has also been of benefit to the researchers, who have gained a clearer impression of farmers' attitudes and priorities, for example the value they put on their time and labour.

Providing farmers with up-to-date information, for example on crop prices, is another service that has suffered with the decline in extension. Once again the remoteness of many coffee growing areas makes it hard for growers to access information, yet without it they are forced to rely on the integrity of their buyers. While buyers are often well regarded and valued by farmers, they also have a reputation for not being immune to the chance of a good deal. In Latin America they are widely known as 'coyotes', because of their playful, tricky nature!

Hence in Uganda, giving the initiative back to the farmers in the form of information has been the aim behind three 'telecentres', which are being piloted in peri-urban and rural communities. The centres have been located at market places where they will be most accessible to rural users. They offer computers, email, Internet, telephone, fax and photocopying facilities and are staffed by a manager, an information officer, an operations officer and three support staff. Farmers are able to access information on coffee prices, and a question and answer service has been set up with the scientists at the National Agricultural Research Organisation. Responses to the centres have been positive; farmers are asking for a wide range of information, and have generally been excited by the new technologies, picking them up quickly. They have requested mini-centres be set up at local community level, and private sector funding for more centres is becoming available, for example from Uganda Telecom.

As a result of this project, village committees have been encouraged to think about their needs, in order to share them with the centre managers. In future it is hoped that the centres could help farmers to promote their produce, perhaps through a website, and connect them with credit opportunities, speciality buyers - and even their coffee-drinking customers.

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