IDB Funds For Coffee Growers In Colombian Caribbean Province
IDB Funds For Coffee Growers In Colombian Caribbean Province
Coffee Network (Bogota) – Coffee growers from the Caribbean Colombian province of Magdalena will benefit from a program that will improve management of wastewater in coffee farms as they will receive funds and training from the Inter-American Development Bank and the Colombian Sustainable Program in Peace.
The initiative will benefit 65 rural families from the towns of Aracataca and Fundación, Magdalena.
They will receive green filters built for the management and treatment of wastewater in coffee farms.
This project also contemplates the planting of 14,300 timber trees to protect water sources and restore degraded areas of forest in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
In nine villages of the municipalities of Aracataca and Fundación, in Magdalena, 65 coffee growers of the Association of Women and Artisans of the Sierra Nevada (Asomurcasines) implement an agro-environmental project that contemplates agroforestry systems of coffee, financed by the Sustainable Colombia program of the Colombia in Peace Fund and the IDB.
“It has positively impacted the entire community and it not only benefits us,but to our families; hard work that is much more than environmental stewardship because we are reforesting and treating the honey water from the coffee," Orfa Guerra, legal representative of Asomurcasines said
The initiative has a total investment of COP1.058 billion ($264,500) and is implemented by the coffee Committee of Magdalena with the support of the Fund's Sustainable Colombia Program Colombia in Peace and the Inter-American Development Bank.
They will receive inputs and tools such as fertilizers, bags for seedlings, coffee seeds, back sprayers, shovels, machetes, tanks and green filters for the management and treatment of wastewater. In addition, it is estimated planting of 14,300 timber trees to protect water sources and restore areas degraded forest in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Magdalena contributes with a 1.76% of national total coffee output, according to FNC figures.
The process includes training cycles and technical assistance for the transfer of new technologies that improve the economy of coffee growers; "What we hope is that achieve a lower impact on the environment and greater profitability in their crops”, explained Hafid Hurtado, from the Fundación’s Coffee Growers Committee.
For the commercialization of coffee, Asomurcasines has the support of the Cooperativa Cafetera de la Costa (Caficosta), an organization of 2,600 associates that provides the purchase guarantee to 12,600 coffee growers in the departments of Bolívar, Cesar, La Guajira and Magdalena.
"We have the purchase guarantee of Asomurcasines. With them we work with transparency to ensure its traceability and chain of custody at the time of coffee sale. In addition, we train on topics such as quality performance and harvest processes and postharvest,” said Steven Pertuz, manager of the Caficosta coffee point of purchase.
About the Sustainable Colombia Program
The Sustainable Colombia Program is an initiative of the National Government that is executed by the Colombia in Peace Fund, which currently co-finances around 200 projects agro-environmental, which benefit more than 37 thousand rural families.
Its prioritized area of intervention corresponds to the 170 PDET municipalities and its Financing comes from Loan to the Nation 4424/OC-CO of the Inter-American Bank of Development. This multisectoral operation has the support and participation of the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment and Finance; the National Planning Department (DNP), APC-Colombia and the Peace Agreement Implementation Unit. The Colombia in Peace Fund (FCP) is a financial vehicle created on the occasion of the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016. The creation of the FCP has a legal origin in Decree Law 691 of 2017 and its purpose is to guarantee efficiency and effectiveness in the administration, coordination, targeting and execution of the resources destined to the implementation of the Final Agreement, in accordance with the Implementation Framework Plan.
By Diana Delgado




