[[{“value”:”Image: Global Coffee Platform
Global Coffee Platform Brazil technical consultants Eduardo Sampaio and Eduardo Matavelli explain how it aims to harmonise the concepts and practices of regenerative agriculture.
The impact of climate change and the global cost of living crisis is threatening the future of coffee farming.
In order to protect coffee – and those who produce it – Global Coffee Platform (GCP) says it’s time to rethink the system by implementing regenerative agriculture.
“Currently, we are trying to combine the chemical, biological, and physical aspects of regenerative agriculture in a way that producers can understand, adopt, and implement, and in turn increase soil and yield performance,” says Eduardo Sampaio, GCP Brazil Technical Consultant.
These aspects of regenerative agriculture prioritise soil management, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and economic resilience in order to mitigate climate change and build resilient livelihoods and prosperous farmers.
In order to harmonise the concepts of regenerative agriculture, GCP Brazil is working with its governance system and other stakeholders in the supply chain, including GCP members, partners, certifications, coffee entities, rural extension services, technicians, and research bodies.
The process began with the Brazil Working Group (BWG), a technical group that discusses and proposes solutions within the governance. The goal is to evolve conventional agriculture, focusing on the reduction of water use and other inputs, and prevention of land degradation to improve soil, biodiversity, climate resilience, and water resources while making farming more productive and profitable.
“GCP is active on the ground through national platforms in six producing countries, and many have identified that their production systems need to be reconsidered or intensified. This is due to the lack of enabling environments, as well as access to technical systems or long-term commercial relationships,” Sampaio says.
GCP, a multi-stakeholder membership association, is dedicated to advancing farmer livelihoods, and creating a thriving coffee sector for generations to come. It aims to act collectively on local priorities and critical issues, scale local sustainability programs, and grow the global market for sustainable coffee.
Sampaio says in order to generate sustainable production results in Brazil, a more moderated approach to farming is needed compared to what has been implemented over the past 50 years.
“We need to intensify efforts to deepen the root systems of the coffee trees and improve soil fertility to combat climate change. The rational use of nitrogen, administration of micro-organisms, and integrated pest management are additional ways we can improve agricultural practices. This is what GCP Brazil is focused on promoting,” he says.
According to GCP Brazil, regenerative practices such as good soil coverage and crop integration are key factors of profitability for maximum production and increased living income for farmers.
Integrating other crops and trees in coffee farms creates a micro-climate that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, reduces erosion and water pollution, and improves carbon storage.
Improved soil health, cultivating crops intercropped with coffee, such as banana, avocado, and beekeeping, also bring social benefits through increased productivity and income.
“Supporting growers through a sustainable environment (technical assistance, technology, credit, growers’ organisation, logistics, and market access) is crucial to preserve and promote resilient crops with adaptation capabilities and high productivity,” says Sampaio.
Image: Global Coffee Platform
In 2023, GCP Brazil launched the Living Income Study in Brazilian Coffee Production as part of its Collective Action Initiative on Social Well-Being. The study demonstrated growers of different sizes and regions in Brazil were able to reach a living income from coffee growing.
“The findings show that once growers have access to an enabling environment, they are able to earn a living income. These conclusions, however, cannot be extrapolated to all coffee growers in Brazil, as the study concentrated on a specific population in the main producing coffee regions,” Sampaio says.
GCP Brazil is using the study findings to focus on increasing climate resilience, incorporating sustainable regenerative agriculture practices among growers to decrease the impact of climate change. The organisation is also using the findings to address the enabling environment in regions where it is not yet developed, or where it does not reach most growers.
“Through the focused collective action of GCP members and the initiative partners, we are able to provide the coffee sector with critical viable learnings and insights on living income as milestone towards farmer prosperity, while at the same time ensuring sustainable practices for coffee production,” says Sampaio.
Prioritising regenerative agriculture knowledge-sharing and training across Brazil’s coffee production chain is a meaningful step towards GCP’s goal to advance farmer prosperity.
This was the motivation behind the field day that took place on 21 February at APROD, the Association of Mountain Coffee Producers of Divinolândia in São Paulo. Here, members and partners undertook a hands-on session in regenerative agriculture practices, promoting best practice and sector alignment.
“The event focused on the experiences of small farmers in the region who have embraced regenerative agriculture as a transformative approach. Technical lectures and stimulating discussions provided a comprehensive and inspiring landscape for all attendees,” Sampaio says.
Image: Global Coffee Platform
During the field day, attendees had the opportunity to talk to family producers about the opportunities and challenges they face. This was complemented with technical lectures by experts and a round table discussion on how to increase the number of producers adopting regenerative agriculture practices effectively.
Teotonio Soares de Carvalho from the Federal University of Lavras, commonly known as UFLA, and Guilherme Chaer of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, known as Embrapa, led the discussion panel.
The meeting brought together 70 people from 43 institutions, including national and international exporters, cooperatives, associations, class entities, state rural extension bodies, and certification organisers. The interactive field day was targeted at GCP members and partners’ technicians and agronomists that are new to the concept.
“GCP member organisations and institutions already working on regenerative agriculture, or those that have included it in their strategies, also participated in the knowledge sharing and alignment of best practices on the topic,” says Sampaio.
United in the belief that coffee sustainability is a shared responsibility, GCP members and GCP’s Network of Country Platforms, including Brazil, are working together to achieve transformational change in prosperity for one million coffee farmers by 2030.
The field day forms part of GCP Brazil’s harmonising efforts for coffee sustainability in the sector, which will contribute to GCP’s 2030 goal.
Eduardo Matavelli, Technical Coordinator of GCP Brazil, says regenerative agriculture is a topic that needs to be discussed more frequently with rural producers.
“GCP Brazil prioritising this topic in alignment with various actors in the coffee production chain is fantastic, because it enables everyone’s involvement and gives strength to the actions we develop. It also promotes broad involvement and leads to more robust actions in GCP’s 2030 goal,” says Matavelli.
Matavelli says Brazilian coffee grower Daniela Bertolin presents an example of a producer who uses regenerative agriculture solutions for small mountain farmers, where the difficulty of farming is greater due to the growing conditions and high cost.
Brazilian Coffee grower Daniela Bertolin. Image: Global Coffee Platform
“I truly believe if all key players, including coffee farmers, organisations, governments, coffee traders, roasters, and consumers work together, we can achieve our common vision of a sustainable and more regenerative coffee sector,” he says.
The last of the four meetings to harmonise the concepts of regenerative agriculture was held on 4 April in Campinas, São Paolo. During the meeting, GCP Brazil steered participants through seven fundamental elements and practices of the implementation of regenerative agriculture.
At each step of the process, technical experts on the subject were invited to contribute with their knowledge.
“We have also compiled knowledge on, and various proposals of, regenerative agriculture from different entities and organisations,” Matavelli says.
The collective concept for regenerative agriculture will be presented to the National Advisory Board (strategic body of GCP Brazil’s governance) for validation.
Matavelli says the next steps are to closely monitor the implementation of these agricultural practices through demonstrations that consider multiple realities on the ground. These will be installed in different coffee regions of Brazil. He says the idea is for these units to serve as models for other coffee producers to learn and replicate the practices.
“We also have an application called CSC App for monitoring indicators of regenerative agriculture and agricultural practices being implemented by growers in the field, which is available to GCP members,” says Matavelli.
Despite the success of the field days and workshops, Matavelli says farmer prosperity is a journey that can’t be undertaken alone.
“To this end, we invite all stakeholders to continue supporting us in GCP’s 2030 goal as we accelerate ambitions and aim to create a long-lasting impact on the coffee value chain,” he says.
This article was first published in the May/June 2024 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.
The post Global Coffee Platform on the importance of regenerative agriculture appeared first on Global Coffee Report.
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