Forest Coffee & Family Food

Local need

Much of Bajawa's coffee grows under forest canopy at low density with limited care. Pruning is rare, red and green cherries are often picked together, and some household farmland lies unused. For forests to be protected, standing forest needs to give families economic, food and cultural reasons to keep it.

Activities

• Baseline on farms, harvests, cherry quality, food diversity and land status.
• Field school on simple pruning, soil care, pest observation and selective red-cherry picking.
• Food-garden and coffee-agroforestry plans on underused household land, without clearing natural forest.
• Two learning plots and farmer-to-farmer visits.
• Quality dialogue with local coffee buyers so better quality links to price and benefits for farmers.

Stages

1. Validate with residents

   Needs, villages and sites are confirmed with farmers, women, customary leaders and landholders.

2. Field school

   Practice on farmers' plots follows the season: prune, care for soil, watch for pests, then harvest.

3. Pilot gardens

   Thirty households plan food gardens; two learning plots serve as shared practice sites.

4. Review & continue

   Lessons from 200 households guide a further phase where land, funding and market capacity allow.

What we track

• Households taking part in field school and coaching
• Pruning and red-cherry picking applied on farms
• Quality of cherries delivered to buyers
• Food variety from household gardens and native shade trees retained

These are the things assessed during the programme, not verified results. Results are reported after delivery and checks.

Ways to collaborate

• Coffee buyers and processors seeking quality supply from forest-friendly farms.
• Donors and CSR partners for field schools and food gardens.
• Local food networks and coffee-agroforestry researchers.

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