Nestled in the lush green forests of the Eastern ghats, amidst cascading splendors and sprawling plantations is our Araku valley, the Ooty of Andhra Pradesh.
Basking in the glory of rich tribal culture and enchanting beauty is a delectable cup of coffee waiting for us!
Coffee busters that you ought to know
- 98 % of coffee producing farmers in India are smallholder farmers who own less than 2 acres of land
- 2 billion people globally depend on 570 million smallholder and family farms for their livelihood
- One cup of coffee requires 70 coffee beans that actually travel a long journey before they reach your expresso
- Susceptible to climate change, according to projections the growing land for coffee would halve by 2050. That means Coffee needs to be carbon neutral by 2030!
Sip into Araku’s specialties
- Do you know that Araku valley boasts of growing the first sustainable coffee brand by Indian tribal farmers?
- Araku is an award-winning brand of gourmet coffee in the world
- Araku is known for its zero-budget natural farming, implying it is organically certified.
- Araku resounds with the community and socio-economic empowerment stories.
- Araku is way ahead in empowering women farmers to bridge the gender-equity gap.
TechnoServe and the Araku Connect
Smallholder farmers need to improve their incomes and get visibility in the markets to have a competitive edge and sustain a decent standard of living. TechnoServe is a non-profit organization that works for the upliftment of these farmers from the dire straits of poverty. Working across countries, TechnoServe links people, information, and capital ensuring prosperity and wellbeing of all communities.
Since 2018, TechnoServe has been working to sustainably increase incomes for thousands of farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. TechnoServe’s Sustainable Livelihoods for Smallholder Farmers program, made possible with funding from the Walmart Foundation, aims to strengthen the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and transform them into sustainable entities.
In the Araku valley of Andhra Pradesh, TechnoServe works with 9 mandals associated with FPOs. TechnoServe gives farmers agronomy training, manages post-harvest to increase coffee productivity, and provides the necessary market linkages. The 9 FPOs have about 500 farmers each and across 355 villages, there are 3500 farmers who are being benefitted by this venture.
TechnoServe has brewing challenges
- Aggregation of Farmers
Araku is a non-traditional region quite unlike the Coorg and Chikamagalur belts of Karnataka that produces specialty coffees. The Araku region has a number of smallholder farmers producing fewer volumes of their produce, resulting in less productivity overall. Aggregation helps to bring together larger quantities of production thereby scaling the economic viabilities of storage, transport, and processing. The formation of FPOs is critical to achieving this aggregation.
- Quality of Yield
Consistency in every coffee cup is a challenge. Geography, climate, soil fertility, and humidity are a few of the dependencies on crop yield. The necessity to follow a set of agronomic practices is essential to determine the quality attributes.
- Lack of Digitization
Easy data recording and access to information bring transparency to a food ecosystem. The managing of this data on paper is cumbersome and inaccurate.
Traceability and Sustainability are growing demands of Supply chain operations.
- Proving Ethical practices
The validity of organic certifications is questionable and needs to be proved. Data has to be captured in real-time accurately and shared with the regulators and concerned authorities.
- Building Trustworthy Consumer brands
Specialty coffee is a brand that needs authentication and verification from consumers. Consumers love to hear the product’s sustainable stories from the bean to the cup to be assured of trust and safety.
TechnoServe builds a Global Value chain with TraceX’s solutions
TraceX’s Blockchain-powered Traceability solutions are the answer to TechnoServe’s brewing challenges. An end-to-end traceability solution that builds a transparent, ethical, and sustainable supply chain.
Let us see how all these challenges are addressed through digital traceability.
- An easy-to-use multilingual, offline app for farmers and FPOs to upload their data.
- Farm management in a geospatial environment to manage their lands
- Onboarding of the various stakeholders to ensure a common platform to exchange data.
- Crop database with a set of predefined Package of Practices to achieve quality yield.
- Harvest dashboards to track the harvest progress and get market insights.
- Streamlined processes along with Batch management to track lots.
- Supply chain optimization with Inventory and Process Management.
- Authentication of certificates uploaded to meet compliance
- Blockchain traceability assuring efficient track and trace systems for addressing food safety and food fraud challenges.
- Digital identity of a product created with a QR code, that connects the consumer with his cup of coffee.
Key Takeaways for TechnoServe
The digital transformation makes sure that their coffees are seen as equitable and sustainable.
- Inspiring trust in consumers who are looking for product transparency that builds strong customer brands.
- Empowering the farmers in giving them visibility and fair share thereby boosting the rural economy.
- The common platform nurtures collaboration creating a shared value to all the stakeholders on the platform.
- The real-time insights generated helps to increase efficiency and profitability.
- Data recorded and validated at each step satisfies regulatory compliance providing the competitive edge.
Win-Win for TraceX and TechnoServe
TraceX gets to showcase the power of Blockchain for traceable supply chains by working with TechnoServe whose customers are Blue Tokai and Humble Beans, TraceX’s customers too. The thrill of actually seeing the Blockchain at work on a collaborative platform and the power of brew that brings people together!
TechnoServe – Achieving its ideals of Business Solutions for Poverty with Corporate Sustainability, Woman Empowerment, Food Security, Environmental sustainability, and last but not the least leveraging Blockchain technology for Trust and Transparency!
The stories do not end there – There are more, many more things that can happen over a cup of coffee!
In the days to come, TraceX would want to make your cuppa eternal, the Carbon Neutral way……
Read more on how to reduce the coffee carbon footprint
