Synopsis: Coffee Promotion Programme (CoPP) of HELVETAS Introduction to Coffee Promotion Programme (CoPP) The ecological settings in the

Himalayan hills provide Nepalese coffee a unique opportunity to enter international specialty markets. It is grown in small family farms under shade in the northern-most coffee region of the world. Little or no external input is used. The cherries ripen during the cooler and sunny October to December season. However, coffee is a relatively new crop. Therefore the entire sector chain from certified organic production, through quality processing and handling, to domestic and international marketing needs to be strengthened. The Coffee Promotion Programme (CoPP) is supported by HELVETAS that facilitates the development of the coffee sector. It strengthens the stakeholders (especially small farmers) for production, processing and marketing of quality coffee for domestic as well as international markets. It started in 2003 and is gradually expanding to a sector support project. After the successful implementation of Coffee Promotion Project from the year 2003 to 2006 and Coffee Promotion Programme (CoPP) from the year 2007 to 2009, CoPP (2010-12) is under implementation in agreement with Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) from the year 2010. Experience of CoPP for the past nine year shows that farmers are capable of producing coffee organically using available resources however, there is lack of activities leading towards organic certification, motivating farmers to produce high quality coffee and marketing of coffee through farmers

associations/cooperatives for the benefit of the farmers. Based on the need and lessons learned, CoPP (2010-12) focuses on high quality coffee production leading to organic certification and strengthening of coffee producers' association/cooperatives for coffee marketing based on business plan. Objective of the program Enhance the livelihoods of women and men farmers in the mid-hills of Nepal by increasing their cash income and providing additional employment opportunities, through strengthening the ability of the coffee sub-sector to provide quality coffee in the domestic and international markets. Expected outcomes 1. Primary cooperatives, cooperative unions and national organizations are strengthened to develop coffee sub-sector in a sustainable manner. 2. Coffee producers (small and medium farmers) are benefited from a fair and competitive marketing practice for quality organic coffee. Group Members: Amar Shrestha, Bishal Gauli, Kamal Dev Sharma, Surina Dongol

Synopsis: Coffee Promotion Programme (CoPP) of HELVETAS Interview with Mr. Prachanda Man Shrestha, Team Leader of Coffee Promotion Programme (CoPP) To understand the project focus in more detail we did a short interview with the Mr. Shrestha who has been involved with the organization from its inception as a Team Leader. According to Mr. Shrestha, the project has been very successful in achieving its objective of enhancing the livelihoods of small and medium farmers by strengthening their ability in coffee farming as well as providing them with the link of the national and international market. Currently the project is working with the coffee farmers of eight different district of Nepal, namely Lalitpur, Kabhrepalanchwok, Sindhupalchwok, Nuwakot, Kaski, Syangja, Palpa and Gulmi. The project doesnt focus much on providing subsidized inputs such as seeds and technology to farmers, instead it focuses on: Trainings and support for the farmers to produce quality coffee. Providing updated production technology through coffee plantation techniques, coffee processing techniques and internal control system for the sustainable income generation to the farmers. Development of Local Resource Person (LRP) from among the farmers by providing trainings who would continuously guide farmers to maintain and control the quality of coffee. Formation and execution of coffee cooperatives to provide fair access to pricing and market for the farmers of that area.

Organic coffee value chain

Group Members: Amar Shrestha, Bishal Gauli, Kamal Dev Sharma, Surina Dongol

Synopsis: Coffee Promotion Programme (CoPP) of HELVETAS CoPP provides support at each level of coffee value chain as shown above. They provide production technology to the farmers/producers and help them to form a group to get the international organic coffee certification. It also supports the development of local cooperatives to process the coffee and a coffee cooperative union at district level that facilitates farmers to sell their coffee collectively and get income. According to Mr. Shrestha, one of the major objectives of CoPP is to create a sustainable market system for coffee in Nepal while facilitating every stages of it.

Market Failure that CoPP is trying to address Coffee is relatively a new crop in Nepal. Before the intervention of CoPP there were very few farmers who were growing coffee and were not able to promote and sell due to lack of access to market and technology. CoPP helped those farmers (as well as new farmers) from certified organic production of coffee through quality processing and handling techniques, to selling it in domestic and international market.

Sustainability plan of CoPP The major objective of CoPP is to strengthen the capacity of individual coffee farmers so that they can produce internationally accepted standard coffee and sell it through self owned cooperatives. To support this objective CoPP also focus on the phase out strategy where they will make sure these intervention will work on their own once the effective system is established. During the phase out stage they generally handover all the establishments to the local farmers (or the representatives of farmers) so that they could run the system on their own with little or no guidance from CoPP in future. However there will be supports as and when needed by farmers even though the project is not actively intervening. Therefore we are convinced that the activities performed by CoPP will be sustained even after the phase out of the project.

Group Members: Amar Shrestha, Bishal Gauli, Kamal Dev Sharma, Surina Dongol