Guernsey, Climate Change and The Joy of Coffee

 

We’ve all seen Fairtrade products in local shops and many of us support Guernsey’s position as a Fairtrade Island by making these Easy Swaps. But did you know that Guernsey is leading the way when it comes to supporting this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight message on the growing challenges that climate change brings to workers in Fairtrade farming communities?

Fairtrade Guernsey has given us an insight into how overseas aid from Guernsey is having a direct positive impact on the lives of coffee farmers in Uganda, by funding a community radio project called 'The Joy of Coffee'. The station has amassed thousands of regular listeners and has resulted in many of the workers adopting new farming methods which are protecting their crops from climate change.

It’s an uplifting story of how aid from Guernsey is changing lives and helping to combat climate change - and bringing great coffee to Guernsey!

 

 

1.  The Mount Elgon Coffee Community

The Mount Elgon region in Eastern Uganda is home to approximately 90,000 smallholder coffee farmers and known for its quality Arabica coffee beans. It is a beautiful area blessed with rich fertile soil but also increasingly blighted by the impacts of climate change: erratic weather patterns, torrential rains and landslides. In 2019, landslides killed five people and many others lost their homes and coffee farms – their only source of livelihood.

Fairtrade predicts that by 2050 as much as 50 percent of the global surface area currently used for coffee farming may no longer be suitable, due to the changing climate.

 

2.  Fairtrade's Role in the Fight Against Climate Change

Fairtrade is committed to fighting the climate crisis, and one of the ways it is helping is by strengthening enterprises such as the Mount Elgon Agroforestry Communities Cooperative Enterprise (MEACCE), a Fairtrade cooperative of over 3,000 smallholder coffee farmers living on the slopes of Mount Elgon.

When a cooperative such as MEACCE becomes Fairtrade certified, its members are guaranteed a minimum price for their produce, set at a level intended to cover the costs of production. This protects them from the volatility of the international coffee market and makes financial planning easier, allowing them to invest in their farms for the long term and make adaptations to protect their crops and their livelihoods against climate change. The standards that Fairtrade producers sign up to also encourage them to protect the environment by improving soil, planting trees, conserving water and avoiding pesticides.

 

3.  Guernsey and The Joy of Coffee

Guernsey’s Overseas Aid & Development Commission leads on championing Fairtrade across the States of Guernsey. In 2020, the Commission awarded a small grant to UK charity, the Lorna Young Foundation, to fund a Farmer's Voice Radio project with MEACCE that supported farmers to access and share information on climate-smart agricultural practices via community radio. Co-funding and technical support was also provided by Rainforest Alliance.

The radio programme, named ‘The Joy of Coffee’ by the farmers who featured in it, amassed thousands of regular listeners across the Mount Elgon region and resulted in many of them adopting new farming methods. For example, planting trees to shade their coffee from excessive heat, using cover crops such as beans that improve soil retention and moisture and also provide a source of food, and making their own organic fertiliser from animal manure. 

 

4. Meet the Farmers

Simon Wandega is a 50-year-old coffee farmer from Mount Elgon, who has changed his practices since listening to The Joy of Coffee. He said: “The program has changed my life! When we started listening to this radio programme we got trained to try and change our practices. I used to dig the coffee throughout, no slashing, and consequently during a rainy season the soil could get washed away. Now I do proper pruning and my coffee looks very healthy. Last season I got some improved yields, but next season I am expecting a very good yield.” 

Jenipher Wettaka, centre front in the photo below, is another coffee farmer living on the slopes of Mount Elgon. Jenipher, who attended COP26 in Glasgow last year as a farmer representative, is Vice Chair of MEACCE. Talking at COP26 about the benefit of Fairtrade in supporting farmers to adapt to the climate crisis, Jenipher remarked: “Fairtrade has made a difference in my community… we are planting trees in our coffee farms to help the soil not to be flowing every time whenever there is heavy rain.”

 

Imagery: Jenipher's Coffi

5. Experience The Joy of Coffee Locally

These practices not only make farmers’ crops more resilient to changing and extreme weather, but they also improve the quality of their coffee. And that's something we can all benefit from here in Guernsey - the MEACCE Ugandan coffee beans are now imported and roasted locally by Hedgerow Coffee Co.

Jenipher's Coffi, a Fairtrade brand named after the MEACCE Vice Chair, is also available to buy online.