Hanns R Neumann Stiftung North America Inc

Programs: Indonesia:smallholder coffee farming households in the world's fourth most important coffee-producing country apply sub-optimal production practices that result in low production, land degradation, poverty, and underdevelopment. Farmers lack access to markets and essential services such as credit and agricultural extension, and earn low returns from their principal livelihood activity of coffee farming. On the aggregate this results in indonesia chronically underperforming as a coffee-producing country, with coffee yields up to one-fourth the levels in nearby vietnam, and in a cycle of underdevelopment among up to 800,000 smallholder farming households. In 2014 we continued efforts with multiple parties to improve farming practices, increase coffee yields, improve natural resource management, reduce climate change vulnerability, and improve economic returns among indonesian coffee farming families, and initiated activities to address gender inequality and encourage strategic dialogue among important local and international stakeholders.

guatemala:smallholder farmers in one of central america's most important coffee-producing countries face chronic, seasonal food insecurity due to small landholdings, undiversified farming systems, inadequate and non-existent support structures, and low returns to their most important livelihood activity of coffee farming. Families - and especially the poorest ones - were also severely affected by the coffee rust crisis of 2012, suffering production losses as high as 60% in some cases, and a coffee price decline that took prices below costs of production. In 2014 we began implementation of a comprehensive food security, livelihood strengthening, and rust response program to support farming families to cope with and recover from the rust and price crises and become more resilient to such shocks in the future; supported families in coffee-farming communities to improve their access to water for consumption and other household uses; and supported young people to support a transformation of coffee farming from subsistence agriculture to dynamic, sophisticated, entrepreneurial agribusiness.

honduras:small-scale farmers in eastern honduras and the trifinio region (where honduras, guatemala, and el salvador come together) make a meager living from coffee production due to poor production practices, low yields, severe quality problems, and a market structure where they deliver at the lowest point in the value chain. In addition, the potential for women and young people to contribute to the well-being of their families is inhibited: for the former traditional gender norms limit women's access to assets and influence over household decisions, even while they play essential roles in coffee production and post-harvest processing; for the latter, young people have few financially rewarding and fulfilling livelihood options available and accessible to them in coffee-growing regions. In 2014, we launched a large-scale program to improve and modernize coffee production in western and eastern honduras; transform the market structure for smallholder farmers by supporting organizational development and facilitating market connections with downstream buyers; initiate social change processes in coffee-farming households to improve gender equality between men and women; and provide young people with the hard skills, soft skills, and practical experience to enable them to reach their potential via employment, self-employment, modernized farming, and entrepreneurialism.

peru:smallholder coffee farmers in northern peru struggle to make a living due to low yields, weak and ineffective farmer organizations, strong power imbalances in the local market, and irregular cash flow that results in an annual 'hungry season' where family access to food is restricted. Low returns from their principal livelihood activity of coffee farming result in poverty and food insecurity, and contribute to forest degradation and deforestation of protected areas as families seek new land for planting. In 2014 we continued to train farmers on improved production, farm management, and sustainable agriculture practices; supported participating farmer organizations to improve their governance, operations, finances, and market position; and supported households to improve their access to food via on-farm food production and alternative income-generating activities. Coffee & climate: gradual climate change continues to affect coffee farming families, and extreme weather events are becoming more common in coffee-growing regions. The livelihoods and production systems of smallholder farmers are unprepared for and extremely vulnerable to these changes, and are at risk for severe and negative consequences from gradual climate change or sudden climate shocks. Services and support from the public, private, and non-governmental sector are in many cases inaccessible to smallholder producers, resulting in further climate change vulnerability. In 2014, in the aftermath of the central america rust crisis and the unprecedented brazil drought we continued to mobilize coffee sector stakeholders to address the climate threat, in line with the initiative for coffee & climate. Youth & coffee:young people in coffee-growing regions commonly find themselves with few attractive and financially-rewarding livelihood options, with the low-tech and low-profit family agriculture under which they have grown up one of their only alternatives. As a result, and in order to improve their own livelihoods and those of their families, young people frequently migrate out of rural regions and to urban centers, where they are poorly prepared for professional opportunities. This trend has the effect of draining rural regions of ambitious, intelligent, and hard-working young people and further contributing to stagnant and depressed rural economies, which in turn leads to more rural-urban migration. There is significant concern within the coffee sector about who will be left to farm coffee in twenty or thirty years. In 2014 we supported programs to help improve the livelihood and professional prospects for young people in rural regions in central america, brazil, and east africa, both within and outside of the coffee value chain, and both on and off the family farm.