Balanced Plant Nutrition project at El Paternal Farm in Guatemala.

Ms. Miguelina and family at El Paternal farm.

Upon implementing the Farm Friendly Direct™ program, we pledged not only to bring outstanding coffees from all over the world to our customers but also to provide assistance to families and communities involved with the production of this product. We work hand in hand with our coffee growers to assess their environment, social and economical needs. In addition to offering a price per pound above Fair Trade standards, we provide additional resources to undertake specific projects that help improve their livelihood and/or product.

At the Paternal Farm in Guatemala, our first project was the construction of a water treatment facility. With the success of this project, we looked to identify other needs in El Paternal farm and pursue another project with them.

One need of all coffee growers is to maintain and improve the quality of their product while maintaining production volume. Ms. Miguelina, who manages El Paternal farm, was happy to receive support and training to achieve this goal through improved fertilization practices.

We are teaming up with Karnataka Plantation Coffee, a 25 year-old company based in India that developed a Balanced Plant Nutrition™ (BPN™) program with very positive results at increasing yields and improving bean quality.

We want to help Ms. Miguelina improve her nutrition plant program, which will lead to not only better coffee but also to increased skill and knowledge of the land. This project will also educate the farmers on their environmental impact and help them take the steps to ensure their land’s sustainability.

Since this project began, we have faced many obstacles: obtaining initial soil/tissue analysis to assess the current situation of the farm, paper work to request permission to ship the fertilizer from the U.S to Guatemala, lack of local expertise to handle experimental testing, and difficulty finding local technical translators, to name a few.

None of these obstacles have discouraged us; we believe in this task. As a long-term commitment it will not be easy, but at the end of this journey we are positive that we will enhance the livelihood of all the people that make a living off this farm.

--Andres Castro, Quality Control Engineer