Results

After working for many years as landless laborers, the six Peixoto brothers joined together, purchased twenty hectares of land, and planted 70,000 coffee trees. They endured several difficult years while waiting for their coffee trees to reach maturity, in which they grew beans and worked on neighboring fazendas to provide a meager income for their families. Today, divided into individual units, their farms have reached full productivity providing the primary source of income for themselves and their families. The Peixoto brothers’ farms are amongst the best maintained of all the producers in Força Café.

Each of the six brothers entered his coffees in the quality competitions that Força Café organized in 2006 and 2007 to promote quality improvement in the project. One of them – Mario Peixoto – came second in this competition and the new awareness of the coffee’s superb quality will put him and his brothers in a better position to negotiate above-market prices in coming years. With investments in coffee drying yards with credit received from the national PRONAF program (Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar) to which the project facilitated contact,  other farmers in the area will also be able to upgrade quality of their coffee.

All six of the Peixoto brothers played a key part in the formation of their local producer association that will assume many of the roles of Força Café after the project expires. Mario Peixoto is vice president of the Café Campinho association, and three of his brothers serve on the association’s supervisory committee. His own pride and that of other smallholders has risen since Força Café farmers are increasingly being recognized and looked after in the context of meetings and exhibitions.

Challenge

Just like the Peixoto brothers many smallholder coffee farmers in Santo Antônio struggle to provide their families a humble life. Productivity of the fields is often low as famers lack the necessary knowledge to increase yields and the availability of agricultural services is limited. Although support services in Brazil are advanced, family farmers are often unaware and do not know how to access them. Thus, technical assistance is often provided only by the distributors of agricultural inputs. Unlike the Peixoto brothers, farmers tend to work individually and existing associations focus more on social issues and completely lack a commercial orientation.

Coffee quality does not reach high standards due to the lack of adequate drying infrastructure on the properties. Nor are the practices in the commercialization of coffee conducive to a quality concept. Mario Peixoto argues “when selling my coffee it usually only gets classified into “drinkable” or “not-drinkable” which is difficult for me to judge. We usually sell to local intermediaries and fetch prices that are often about 15% lower than those listed in official trade indices”.

The educational level of farmers is limited and not all can read and write. Children often experience the hard reality of helping the family working in the fields after school  limiting their time for play. Children of producers often lack orientation and cannot see clear prospects in working in coffee or other agricultural activities. “In an increasingly urbanized society smallholders in Brazil are often viewed as backward, uneducated and unintelligent,” says Mario Peixoto which is no doubt affecting the self-esteem of parents and children alike.

Natural resources in the area also require better attention. Only a few farmers really keep the natural reserves of 20% of farm area as required by law. Misuse of agricultural inputs occurs in terms of excessive fertilization and application of inappropriate products.

Actions Taken

Participation in the Força Café project has given the Peixoto brothers access to unbiased technical assistance, linked them to other producers to buy fertilizers and other inputs in bulk at lower prices, and enabled them to further improve the productive capacity of their farms. Farmers were trained in good agricultural and sustainable coffee production practices including soil analysis, optimized use of agrochemicals, the correct use of protective wear as well as proper drying of coffee cherries off the ground.

The Farmer Field Book was introduced and information about coffee certification was provided. In recognition of their efforts interested farmers were assisted in the process of achieving the 4C verification as a first step towards differentiating their coffee.

With the support of the project farmer associations are organising a joint warehouse operation for their members enabling the formation of sizeable lots in order to attract the commercial interest of exporters directly.