Coffee was introduced to the tribal communities here by the government’s Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) and technically supported by the Coffee Board since long before Naandi arrived.

Naandi was invited to join this effort by the local tribal based NGO - AASSAV and its funders the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 2001, who were helping the ITDA and the Coffee Board in the deployment of this intervention. Our role as it emerged from collective need assessments was to extend technical support to organize collective organic farming of the coffee in the area, facilitate international certification for the produce and help with marketing and export to build in an end-to-end livelihood solution in the area for the tribal small and marginal farmers.

Initially Naandi identified 1014 farmers in the Araku and Dumbriguda Mandal but over the years of seeing the results of this work in terms of increasing yields and better market prices for the coffee - the potential for organizing tribal farmers collectively to realize better prices for their produce encouraged Naandi to expand its work to more locations in the region, and more importantly, create a special cooperative of all coffee farmers – the Small and Marginal Tribal Farmers Mutually Aided Cooperative Society (SAMTFMACS) – and register it as the body responsible for the growth of reach and benefits of this intervention.

Training in organic farming and Fairtrade standards

Converting semi-wastelands into organic coffee plantations has been the main focus here. Coffee farmer groups with master trainers chosen from the community itself were formed to train farmers in plantation maintenance, harvest techniques and right financial practices. Creating stone bunding to safeguard crops from animals, inter-planting shade giving trees, making and using bio manure, supporting spider populations to grow and provide natural pest control webs were some of the features on which farmers were trained and monitored to ensure the cultivation and the process followed were according to organic certification criteria.

Securing and maintaining Organic and Fairtrade certification.

Naandi brought in Control Union (earlier known as SKAL), the renowned Dutch organic accreditation agency to monitor and certify the plantations as organic for international consumption. All the plantations are presently following the Control Union standards of cultivation. Fairtrade certification too has been secured as facilitated by Naandi.

Marketing and branding the produce

The combination of organic and Fairtrade certification is fetching the SAMTFMACS member farmers premium prices as compared to the coffee grown traditionally, and sold locally. Naandi is actively exploring national and international markets for buyers of this produce and has begun to supply the coffee, branded as Araku Emerald™ to buyers in Norway, France and the US. This is helping farmers get assured premium rates on the coffee they are growing.

The farmer’s cooperative

Capacity building of the SAMTFMACS members and the executive committee is an ongoing task geared to create a dynamic tribal farmers’ cooperative that will be able to take informed decisions in production, procurement, processing and financial and market planning for its members.

Value additions

Naandi has sponsored coffee farmers to enable them to enroll in Coffee Board's Price Stabilisation Fund scheme, in which the farmers are assured a stable income when prices fluctuate. To cater to the harvest storage needs of coffee farmers in the entire project area, the Coffee Board has agreed to provide three community centres-cum-godowns.

The programme has created a sense of security and a feeling that help is at hand whenever they need it. It has also attracted the central government’s attention what with the coffee produced here being awarded at the fine cup tasting awards instituted by the Coffee Board of India. Visits from the Union Minister of Commerce to the project and projections of expanding this intervention to thousands of more farmers and converting this region into a model organic farming region in the county is the plan that is being worked upon presently.