The Challenge
Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand have a long tradition of coffee cultivation. However, the plant populations are overmature and the soils have degraded over time. The effects of climate change are also becoming increasingly severe, while cultivation methods and business management are largely unsustainable and hardly up to date. Declining crop yields mean that farmers are losing interest in coffee cultivation and producing less and less green coffee. The joint project between Nestlé and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Coffee+, is intended to complement Nestlé’s Nescafé Plan and bring individual benefits to coffee producers. It aims to increase farm incomes and, not least, get the younger generation interested in coffee cultivation by making agriculture more productive and diversified and by improving business skills and management approaches. The outcomes of this programme can significantly support the supply of high-quality green coffee over the long term.
Project approach
From 2018 to 2022, the project partners worked with over 10,000 coffee producers in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. With a budget of almost EUR 13 million they implemented the following measures:
- Training of coffee producers in best agricultural practices, diversification through intercropping and farm management (Farmer Business Schools)
- Strengthening smallholder organisations to provide better services and advice
- Creation of model plots for different intercropping systems
- Promoting dialogue between policy-makers and stakeholder groups in the coffee sector
- Development of a sustainable supply chain of Robusta coffee
GIZ contributed its expertise and tried-and-tested Farmer Business School training approaches and its political contacts in the three countries, while Nestlé provided agricultural training and technical advice on coffee production in mixed systems and introduced innovative techniques and sustainable approaches to coffee cultivation.
The project will enable the participating coffee producers to optimise and diversify their farm production and run their farms more as a business.
Results
The coffee producers improved their agricultural cultivation techniques and farm management. They diversified their agricultural production through intercropping, thereby also mitigating the risks caused by climate change and price fluctuations. Many producers were able to significantly increase the productivity of their land and boost their income. Coffee cultivation in the project areas, which had recently been in decline, became more economically attractive. The endline impact assessment study by the Rainforest Alliance (2022) as part of their monitoring & evaluation services to Nestlé included the following results:
- Over 12,000 coffee producers have been trained and advised in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.
- 99% of farmers in Indonesia, 96% in Thailand and 69% in the Philippines have switched to intercropping and are benefitting from additional income.
- More than 400 producer groups have received training in farm management, agricultural practices and intercropping.
- 75% of farmer organisations in Thailand, 62% in the Philippines and 55% in Indonesia are offering better services to their members.
develoPPP Classic
develoPPP Classic is aimed at companies that want to invest sustainably in a developing or emerging country and expand their operational activities locally. Suitable projects receive technical and financial support of up to two million euros in public funding.
Project partners
