Farmers: A Day in the Life

A coffee farmer of La Unión wakes up before dawn to have a cup of coffee and piece of bread before heading out to work for the day.

Still in the darkness, he embarks on the routine hike to the fields, one of about two hundred people from his village who travels up to two hours. Wielding a machete, he begins attending to his coffee plants as the sun rises.

With fields as high as 1500 meters above sea level, he often times works all day in a storm cloud or, on clear days, he must work against the sun's intense heat. As the sun falls below the rolling, green mountains, he makes his way back down the mountain to his waiting family. Without electricity, he and his family eat their dinner of beans and corn tortilla as the day turns to night.

The coffee farmer repeats this daily routine, often six or seven days a week, caring for his coffee from early spring until the entire crop is harvested. He removes weeds in the spring and fall, fertilizes when the rains come, and ensures that only berries which have just ripened are picked during harvest.

But without a way to transport his coffee himself, he must sell his harvest to an intermediary who buys the coffee at a low price. This intermediary sells to an exporter, who sells to an importer in another country, who sells to a roaster, who sells to a coffee shop, who sells to you. While the farmer has put in the most work of anybody in the chain, he sees the smallest amount of the profits. Unless he is working with Microloan Coffee.

Farmers: Overcoming Obstacles

Microloan Coffee allows farmers to make a decent income for their hard efforts. We help them overcome these obstacles:

1. Agricultural Inputs
   

   The main difficulty these farmers face is that their poverty prevents them from consistently producing large amounts of coffee, since important products such as fertilizers are often too expensive to purchase. When you buy Microloan Coffee, proceeds go right back to the farmers through the provision of microloans. These microloans will then enable the farmers to buy proper inputs or continue developing their fields, thereby sustainably increasing these farmers' incomes.

2. Access to Markets
   

   Farmers face difficulty caused by the remoteness of their fields. It takes a four-wheel drive truck many hours to navigate through the steep, dirt mountain roads from La Unión to find the nearest paved road and, consequently, the nearest coffee market. As most small farmers cannot afford to transport their coffee themselves, they must sell their harvest to intermediaries. Microloan Coffee cuts out the chain of intermediaries by bringing coffee directly from farmers to you. This allows us to give farmers a price for their coffee that reflects their efforts.

3. Technical Training
   

   Most farmers use the same techniques that their grandfather’s grandfather used. We organize programs led by agricultural experts who train the farmers on how to grow coffee to produce larger, more consistent harvests.

Buying Microloan Coffee ensures the farmers are able to sell their coffee for a better price and allows them to receive microloans and technical training. This means excellent coffee for you, and a step away from poverty for the farmers.

Farmers: Their Stories

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Ramiro Ponce (1 of 3)

Ramiro Ponce lives in La Unión, Lempira and has a field in El Aguila, a nearby village. He travels to his field every day in order to check on his coffee and is excited that his efforts may be rewarded now that his coffee is being sold in the United States. He started with only one acre of land, and hopes to use loans to buy better fertilizer. He is a part of the Cooperative and is also excited to be one of the first people in La Unión to have his coffee sold in the United States. With his increased income, he would like to save enough money to send his three children to University.

Maria Mercedes Mejia lives in Camoteras and runs a well managed coffee operation. During the harvest season, agricultural production provides jobs to fifteen people. Unlike many other farmers who sell to intermediaries, sells coffee to the COCAQUIL cooperative of La Unión. As an experienced and growing microenterprise, she would like to use loans during the period of summer between planting and harvesting to replenish her fertilizers to ensure a bountiful harvest and to pay her workers. She hopes to increase her income and as a result increase her standard of living.

Mariano Ramos is a coffee grower in the village of Quiscamote, though he has experimenting with small scale vegetable cultivation and produces delicious tomatoes, peppers, and green beans. Like most agricultural workers, Mariano apportions part of his land to grow his family’s supply of corn and beans, selling the extra as an additional source of income. Though his current harvest went well, he often finds difficulty with finding an adequate market to sell his goods. Despite this obstacle, Mariano provides for his wife and four children, his oldest of which helps him in the fields. With an increased income, he would invest in other productive activities as well as put some money aside in a bank account. Though he has been dedicated to coffee for most of his life, he is excited to learn new techniques to grow other commodities such as rice, cheese, and plantains.