Holistic solutions: Thriving smallholder famlies

Written By:Katharina van Treeck
Date:20 November 2024
Country:Ethiopia
Theme:HRNS, Social Situation
Improving good agricultural practices

Results of Project Evaluation “Coffee Alliances for Ethiopia (CAFE)"

Sustainable support for smallholder coffee farming families requires a wide range of activities. Focusing solely on individual issues, such as training in farming methods, is not enough; only a holistic approach that considers and integrates different factors can truly empower smallholder farmers and prepare them for the many challenges they may face, such as changing climatic conditions, price volatility, pests and diseases, or personal crisis.

The HRNS program evaluation shows: The holistic project strategy has made CAFE a success. Farmers were trained by use of the farmer field school methodology in good agricultural and climate-smart-practices with a remarkable positive impact on coffee productivity, profitability, and farmers’ resilience to climate change. By increasing gender equality through couples’ seminars, helping farmer cooperatives to professionalize, supporting youth organizations, and by promoting home gardens and diversified production systems, CAFE has further strengthened smallholder families - thereby securing these gains.

Facts

From October 2019 to December 2024, the Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung implemented a project for +3,000 coffee farming households in Amhara, Ethiopia, benefiting 15,000 people by enhancing holistic solutions.

Funded by the Austrian Development Agency and International Coffee Partners (ICP), the project partners with the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Amhara National Regional State agencies, University of Bahir Dar and Jimma Coffee Research Institute

Main Program Interventions

The project focused on enhancing farmers' livelihoods by:

  • promoting the professionalization of farmers’ cooperatives and union,
  • providing training to farmers through farmer field schools to increase their adoption of good agricultural practices (GAPs) and to diversify their production systems,
  • promoting gender equality through couples’ seminars, encouraging a more equitable and efficient use of the available resources, and
  • supporting youth income generation along the coffee chain
"We are very pleased with the results of the project: Despite shocks such as worsening climatic conditions and the emerging Amhara conflict, agricultural productivity and profitability, income diversification, and gender equality have improved, and with them farmers livelihoods."
Kirsten Ehrich (Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager at HRNS)

Main Findings

  • Farmer field schools trained farmers in good agricultural and climate-smart practices, which they increasingly adopted.
  • As a result, smallholder coffee productivity has increased significantly and farmers have become more resilient to climate change (particularly through proper management of shade trees).
  • This also improved coffee profitability over the course of the project, partly due to higher coffee prices, but mainly due to the increased adoption of GAPs.
  • Farmers have diversified their production systems and planted more vegetable gardens for home consumption during the project.
  • Through couples’ seminars, the project has been able to increase joint decision-making about the practices adopted.
  • All participating cooperatives as well as the Amhara Coffee Farmers Cooperatives Union (ACFCU) have made progress in their professionalization. At the end of the project, nine out of ten cooperatives were in the consolidation phase and one could be classified as strong and professional.
  • The project contributed to further reducing poverty and food insecurity.

Holistic Approach

A particularly successful feature of the project was its holistic strategy following the ICP Theory of Change. Such a strategy goes beyond focusing on single aspects and integrates a wide range of activities into a comprehensive picture. While agricultural expertise is an important foundation for successful smallholder projects, evaluation has shown that in order to maintain a high level of livelihoods for smallholder farmers in the long term, it is important to go beyond providing training in agricultural practices and also include other activities, particularly in the areas of gender equality, income diversification, climate resilience, and farmer organization.

Program Results

Number of GAPs adopted increased

Adoption of GAPs (out of 10 practices monitored):

2,7 in 2020 and 4,8 in 2023.

Integrated Pest and Disease Management

Proper Shade Tree Management

Mulching

COFFEE PRODUCTIVITY INCREASED

Reported average yield of green coffee beans per hectare:

385 kg in 2020
655 kg in 2023 (an increase of 70%)

INCOME DIVERSIFICATION OF FARMERS INCREASED

Average number of income sources reported by households:

3.20 in 2020
3.50 in 2023

Proportion of families growing fruits or vegetables for home consumption:

Livelihoods of Farmers Improved

Share of households below poverty line (1.25$) declined:

5% in 2020
3% in 2023

Share of households below national poverty line declined:

19% in 2020
14% in 2023

Percentage of households facing a hungry season declined:

2% in 2020
0% in 2023

COFFEE PROFITABILITY QUADRUPLED

Partly due to higher coffee prices, but mainly due to the increased adoption of GAPs.

Average gross margin/profitability per hectare:

$760 in 2020
$3,085 in 2023

Gender Equality Improved

Across all practices, the percentage of households reporting that the husband and wife make joint decisions about the practices adopted increased:

61% in 2020
87% in 2023

Climate Resilience Increased

The proportion of farming families that suffered little or no climate-related crop losses remained stable at around 90 % despite worsening climatic conditions.

Farmer Organizations have become stronger, but there is still room for improvement

All participating cooperatives have increased their professionalization score (0–100%) by at least ten percentage points during the project period.

The share of farmers who are members of a cooperative increased:

40% in 2020
50% in 2023

Lessons Learned

The completion and evaluation of CAFE II gives us the opportunity to
step back and assess how future programs can be even more impactful:

  1. HRNS will increasingly focus on risk management training: Farmers face the risk of many potential external and internal shocks for which they should be prepared.
  2. Farmer cooperatives need to further professionalize, especially by increasing their business and risk management skills and expanding their services: This strengthens the role of farmers in the supply chain, thereby improving their livelihoods.
  3. Opportunities for the rural youth must to be expanded: Young people are increasingly migrating to the cities across different program regions, creating labor shortages and threatening family businesses.

Download the Factsheet here

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