Fairtrade is an organization that is actively involved in practical assistance to farmers. The Fairtrade report on projects aimed at helping farmers under pressure due to climate change provides a wealth of information about the projects carried out by the organization in dozens of countries around the world. Through innovative energy solutions and projects, farmers are increasing the sustainability of their businesses and contributing to sustainable agricultural practices. One such concrete solution is the production of biogas and fuel briquettes from coffee husks. These solutions convert waste into energy sources, which is very valuable in poor countries.
For example, in Kenya, the Fairtrade Climate Academy project ran from 2017 to 2019. It involved 8,000 coffee farmers in the country. Local farmers are heavily dependent on firewood and cut down forests to obtain it (for work and domestic use). But by promoting biogas technology, the project enabled farmers to reduce deforestation. With Fairtrade financial support, more than 300 biogas plants were deployed, producing biogas from coffee waste and other sources. The biogas was then used for cooking stoves and in businesses to heat water, resulting in a 60% reduction in firewood consumption by individual households involved in the project. The biogas systems also freed up time that was previously spent on firewood collection, allowing farmers to have more time for other activities, such as investing in new income-generating opportunities. The project also introduced farmers to more environmentally friendly and efficient farming methods, including agroforestry.
In Uganda, a Fairtrade initiative was the Growing Resilient Agricultural Enterprises (GREAN) project, which ran between 2017 and 2019. It aimed to explore the potential of coffee husk briquettes as a renewable energy source for domestic and business use. The project trained coffee farmers to make briquettes from the husks that remain after the coffee beans are harvested and processed. This also reduced waste and provided an alternative to firewood. The project involved 480 people who were trained to make coffee husk briquettes, creating new employment opportunities in their communities. The Fairtrade funding of these energy solutions increased household incomes by 50% and helped protect local forests by reducing the demand for firewood. In addition, the production and sale of these briquettes became an additional business for the trained professionals. They could also receive “carbon credits” from Fairtrade at preferential rates to start their own business.
Another Fairtrade project is the Climate Academy, which purchased and distributed 30,000 tree seedlings that will not only provide the coffee bushes with the necessary shade, but also form new forests.
Fairtrade has also introduced energy-efficient technologies among 1,200 small-scale coffee farmers in Ghana (biogas plants and coffee husk briquettes).
Thus, as we see, Fairtrade is an organization that is not only engaged in the preparation of various documents for the regulation of the market and the provision of recommendations and conclusions. It also actively finances “green” projects and implements them in individual countries with its own active participation. The projects proposed by the organization provide farmers with the means to combat climate change and improve their business processes.
in Про нас