Cajamarca is a department of Peru located in the northwest of the country. It nests in the Quechua region, located on both sides of the Peruvian Andes mountain range (between 2300-3,500 m a.s.l.), and boasts a temperate climate, sunny during the day but cold at night.
Clotilde Huaman Peña, a 54-year-old coffee producer, arrived in the community of Yandiluza (San Ignacio Province, Cajamarca) in mid-1995. Two years later, after acquiring a plot of land of approximately 4 hectares, she and her husband Isidoro Huayama began to venture into coffee production.
“It was very complicated to start, we knew nothing about coffee growing and it was difficult to find fertilizers and to know how to use them,” says Clotilde.
CClotilde and her husband Isidoro joined MOCCA, through the Unicafec cooperative, at the beginning of 2021 with the purpose of participating in the trainings and learning better practices that would allow them to increase yields on their farm and optimize the quality of the coffee to obtain better prices.
“At MOCCA we have learned about fertilization, selective harvesting and post-harvest. We now make correct use of the depulper and obtain better quality coffee at better prices. With the profits from the sale of coffee we are going to make some improvements to our house and invest in the farm by buying fertilizers and tools” Clotilde Huaman.
German Coronel is 29 years old, married, and father of a 5-year-old daughter. He has been growing coffee in the community of Chinchiquilla since 2013. German joined the MOCCA project in mid-2021, through the Lima Coffee cooperative.
“I was unaware of the benefits of a good selective harvest and the importance of picking only ripe beans. With the MOCCA training I am putting into practice new techniques for coffee production that allow me to obtain better quality.” German Coronel.
Coffee producers like German Coronel have learned to identify how many of the plants they have on their farms are really productive, and to make renewal and rehabilitation decisions by applying the practices learned in the MOCCA training modules.
“My income has increased by 50% thanks to the practices learned and the good coffee prices. With the profits, I want to rehabilitate and renew my plantation, because when I carried out the productive diagnosis that I learned in MOCCA, I found unproductive and aged plants”, says German.
Another of the female coffee producers who are part of the MOCCA & MIDAGRI alliance is Luz Esther Silva, born 58 years ago into a family with a long coffee-growing tradition in the community of Rumipite (San Ignacio Province, Cajamarca).
“One of the problems we had was the management of pests and diseases that plague coffee farms. At MOCCA we learned how to do a sampling of CBB and rust to know the degree of infestation and control them in time… that has helped us avoid losses!” Luz Silva
“My husband and I work as a team and always support each other, by applying good practices we are making a better income from coffee sales and the family economy is growing, which allows us to invest in equipment and infrastructure for our post-harvest processes” Comments Luz Silva
In Peru, MOCCA has established alliances with buyers and other organizations, through which it will train more than 16,000 coffee producers (40% women), providing integration into higher value markets, technical assistance, research, access to quality genetic material. and promoting catalytic financing models.
About MIDAGRI
In partnership with the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI), MOCCA provides technical assistance to coffee producers to improve their productivity and strengthen their skills in renovation and rehabilitation, organic fertilization and good agricultural practices that contribute to reducing climate risk. In addition, efforts are being made to facilitate trade links that connect producers with higher value markets.
