Finishing touches

Almost 28 weeks after we first heard of the assignment UTZ Certified and TAHMO had come up with together, and 22 weeks after our first meeting with Rolf (TAHMO) and Wiard (UTZ), we are almost at the end of our project. Though hopefully we are only at the beginning, our results serving as a solid starting point for a quick and effective implementation of the proposed concept. We hope that coming Monday we can show our project partners how proud we are of what we found out this past few months. We think that the solution we have come up with could be implemented within only a few years from now.

The past four weeks, since the second group returned from Kenya, we worked on the implementation plan for our concept. As in previous blogs, we do not want to give away too much online, but we will tell you some things about it:

-        It would be best to run a small scale pilot of the system we designed somewhere in Kenya, to find out how it works and how it will be perceived, understand and used by farmers on the long term.

-        After this pilot the system could best be implemented on a large scale directly, to save a lot of costs (since most parts of the system then would be mass produced).

-        Cooperatives will not receive money for maintaining the weather stations placed at their factories (that will be delivering weather data) but at the same time they do not have to pay for receiving weather forecasts, for big maintenance on the station or for software fixes.

-        Many parties we spoke to in the past months have shown their interest in our project and often offered to play a (financially supporting) part in it. This lead to a lot of those organizations being involved in our implementation plan. Every party has a different advantage (like connections on the right levels or knowledge on the right elements) and all have similar interests and goals as ours, TAHMO’s and UTZ’s. It does make the implementation plan of the already complex system even more complicated. With the right party in charge of the implementation everything should work out just fine though.

-        Too reach all Kenyan coffee farmers (or as many as possible) it is necessary to involve all Kenyan marketing agents, including those that do not have any UTZ certified farmers linked to them. Other ‘competing’ certifiers might also need to be involved in the implementation to make sure all farmers will be helped with more accurate weather forecasts, advice on coffee cultivation and factory related information. As in so many things in life, it is important that all parties (want to) work together to achieve the highest goal.

More accurate weather forecasts will prevent farmers from wasting chemicals, fertilizer or money on labour. Therefore we believe that what we designed will help Kenyan coffee farmers with their farming activities and improve their productivity, eventually increasing their quality of life. It will also open up a new line of communication among coffee factories and their coffee farmers and hopefully more oral discussion between them and amongst each other as well.

We hope we can show our partners the potential of our concept as well, but we will see next Monday! Who knows, this blog post might be the last ever, or it might be the first one in a new phase: reporting the progress on the finishing touches and on the implementation of our weather information providing concept for coffee farmers in Kenya!

And it’s a wrap

The past 2 weeks were all about testing our design and interviewing coffee farmers and factory managers. This week we moved back to Nairobi to interview several experts we had visited in our first trip as well, like Solidaridad, CMS and CRI (formerly CRF). Friday we finished our research by meeting up with Julius from UTZ and 2 people from TAHMO. And overall it seems that everyone we spoke to this last few weeks is very enthusiastic about the system we designed. There is a list of possible and/or necessary adjustments we will have to implement for our final design, but we believe it could become a very useful and very feasible system.

In Nyeri we mainly test the different aspects of the system we designed, using (paper and real-size wooden) prototypes and text messaging. In Nairobi we evaluated our design with experts, but also focused on implementation. Which parties could and/or should be involved? Who is going to pay and who will benefit? How (where, on what scale, when) should it be implemented? Should it be tested first? We wish we could provide you all the answers to these questions right here on this blog, but to make sure no one is going to steal our findings we will inform our partners about all this in our final report. But we can give you a small teaser of our conclusions:

-        It would be best to start a pilot set up somewhere in Kenya, to prove the added value of the weather stations and the operability of the forecast software on factory computers.

-        The wooden sign with the current weather forecast should not only be placed at coffee factories, since they are not visited all year long. There are several better places where the sign could also be placed, but then who will be responsible?

-        Every area in Kenya has its own languages. English and Swahili are usually fine, but we should keep in mind that in some less educated rural areas using these languages, or reading in general, could be a problem.

-        Coffee is cultivated throughout whole Africa, but of course not everywhere in Africa. For instance in Kenya the coffee is mostly cultivated in Central Kenya around mount Kenya.  TAHMO’s goal to place weather stations throughout Africa need to be taken into account when writing the implementation plan.

-        There are many players in the coffee market; the farmers, the coffee factories, the cooperatives, the marketing agents, the research institutions, the certifying bodies and the governmental parties. Favorable would be if all could benefit from this project. For us the task to figure out a way to make that happen.

-        The cooperatives we visited performed above average. They are well structured and have a good board. In the future the concept should be available for all the factories. So we need to learn from the factories we visited and maybe make an adaption for those less structured factories.

So this was the last blog from Kenya, the next one will be from the Netherlands where we will be finalizing our design and report in the next 4 weeks. We would like to thank all the people we spoke to in Kenya and all those who arranged our very valuable meetings we had. We would like to especially thank Julius from UTZ and Catherine from CMS for arranging most of our local contacts, as well as our reliable taxi drivers and comfortable place to stay in Nyeri. Thanks everyone and we will keep you posted!

Hiding in the coffee trees

‘Oh, what is that?’

‘It is a new sign that tells the weather information, brought to us by the mzungus (white people)’

‘That is really useful for me’

This is the start of the conversation we figured out some farmers had, when they were bringing their cherries to the coffee factory. Unfortunately, they did not have this conversation in English, but in Kikuyu, the local tribe language. So, we took the freedom to translate it ourselves. They were talking about the big wooden sign that we placed on the factory to test the part of the concept in which weather information is showed in a non-digital way.

The sign stood on a strategically chosen place, so that the farmers always needed to pass it. We tested it on two coffee factories and especially at one factory it was a big happening. Not because there was a sign on the factory, but because there were mzungus on the factory. Our presence took all the attention away from the sign. We ended up hiding between the coffee trees to see what was happening (we could actually do some picking in the meantime, if no one was near the sign). The factory manager was really proud of this new sign and she thought it was her task to inform everybody about it. Although it was nice that she was so involved, in the end we needed to ask her to stand away from the sign for a while, so we could see what was happening if the farmers were not informed or drawn to the sign by the manager. Luckily farmers also stopped at the sign when she was not there, and without exception they were positive about it. Several points of improvement came up, which we will process when we get back to the Netherlands.

At these same factories we tested the computer interface we designed with the factory managers. Before this test we had no clue if the managers were able to use a computer, but now we found out that they have enough experience to operate a program like the one we designed and more importantly: that they actually all have a computer at the factory. Of course the program is not yet perfect, so we found a few points of improvement.

On Wednesday we visited the Nyeri Hill farm, which is about the size of 400 smallholder farms. Paulien had already been there before, but for Jaimie and Wilco it was interesting to see the differences between this professional, structured coffee estate and the smallholder farmers we had visited before. The field manager of the estate reviewed our design and commented on it and together we figured out how our design could also be useful for coffee estates.

 On another note: we are happy to inform you that we have a visitor here in Kenya. Our coach from the TU Delft is now in Nyeri. He joined us on one of our testing days. He was lucky, because this was the day that we had two focus groups. These were held on two different factories, so he was able to attend the focus groups and to see the factories.

So with our coach there as well, we tested our wireless weather information system with some farmers (2 groups of 5 and 6 farmers, both groups received different types of messages) and we discussed the results and experiences these farmers had. Overall the system was well liked and also understood by the farmers. We got good insights in how they were using it and how we could improve it. All farmers were asking us when it would be officially operational, but all we could reply for now is that we hope it will be as soon as possible.

Next to improvements we could make, we also learned a lot about the context of our system and ways of implementation. For example, we saw that the position of the smallholder farmer is really weak compared to the power the marketing agents and buyers have. A whole new research towards positions of all stakeholders could be very useful, but unfortunately not in our reach during this project. Still, it is good to see our project in the bigger picture.

In our first visit to Kenya we told all the farmers that we would return to Kenya and so we did. Only this time we did not need to do interviews with all the farmers again. To not upset them (if you visit one, the word spreads) we paid a visit to all the farmers to bring them the photos of the first trip. The farmers really enjoyed having us over again, even if it was for only a short while.

At the end of every meeting we were asked the question: ‘When do you come back?’ It is hard to look a person in the eye and tell him that you are most probably not coming back, even if you really want to. We needed to explain several times that we are only doing this project for a half-year and that after that the company will take over. (But if we come to Kenya again, we will most certainly visit those nice farmers again!)

Hello? Hello?

Already a week ago, we saw our first glimpses of Kenya’s nature from the car, on our way to Nyeri. The last week past really quick, and it feels like we are already here for a month or so. Time flies when you are having fun!

Until now, we have met two farmers (from the first group), a board member of one of the coops, several people from the DeKUT university (also the farm manager of the university farm), two factory managers and ten more farmers separated in two different focus groups.

To describe the phone calls to those people (who did not know we were back in Kenya) when trying to arrange a meeting:

-        Hello?

-        Hello! This is Paulien speaking, from team Blend

-        Hello?

-        This is Paulien, from team Blend

-        Hello?

-        Team Blend, from the Netherlands

-        Hello?

-        We have visited you about a month ago

-        Hello?

-        From the Netherlands

-        …………. Ooooooh!!! REALLY?!

-        Yes!

-        When are you coming back?

-        We are already back in Kenya!

-        What?! Seriously? When are you coming to visit me again?

-        Well, this afternoon maybe?

-        Yes, yes, of course! You are always welcome!

Like we wrote earlier about the first farmer we have visited, the second farmer was also very happy to see us again, he showed us around on his farm and participated in a test about the USSD system. Both farmers were really excited about our system; something that gives them the opportunity to get weather information, advice about coffee farming and information the factory would like to share with its famers, at home. The second farmer was already explaining to us how he would arrange trainings and meetings to introduce every single farmer to this new system (“And I tell them all to come to mr. Kanja’s farm (which is his own farm) where they can see why my farm is doing better”).

In general, we can say that every single person so far reacted really positive to the system we have designed. The board member, factory managers and farm managers gave us some useful insights about the different parts of our system and (depending on their farming expertise) about the activities in farming throughout the year and the relations of those activities with different types of weather. See our previous blog for some recommendations.

During the two focus groups we arranged, we explained the most important parts of our system. We used SMS to test our idea for the wireless system. To the first group we explained that we would send them a text message with weather forecast for the next two days plus an advice about farming every evening and that they could use this information any way they want to. The second group was told that they could text us any time, after which we would replay with up-to-date weather information and an advice.

Although every single farmer was very used to calling with his phone, texting was a bit more difficult. We gave them a crash course in texting and after a while, they luckily understood how to set up a text message and how to send it to us (except for one, so we agreed that he could call us).

So far, we got at least one text message with a request from every farmer of the second group.

We are very curious to our next meeting with them, where we will discuss how they used the weather information and what recommendations they might have for us.

We also visited the CKCM (Central Kenian Coffee Mill) where the CMS (Coffee Management Services) organized an open day for all kinds of important people in the world of coffee. There were factory managers, board members, promoter farmers and many other people. After visiting several stands (promoting new kinds of coffee trees, chemicals, fertilizers and more) we were welcomed as special guests and could listen to the different speeches from the front row. Most speeches were in Swahili, but our driver took notes for us and provided us with a summary of what had been said after the speeches were done. We met some of the people that had helped us previously in our project and some that we are going to meet in the next couple of weeks, so all together it was an useful day.

Today (Sunday) we finished the big sign that we want to place at two factories on Monday and Tuesday. The sign will tell farmers what the weather for the next couple of days will be, and we will be testing how the farmers are going to react to it. Do they understand what is on it? Do they think it is useful information? Monday and Tuesday are picking days, so most farmers will visit their factory during the day to hand in what they have picked. We are very much looking forward to finding out how they are going to react!

There is so much more we have learned so far and even more we still want to find out, so please keep an eye out for our next blog. We will try to keep you as up to date as possible!

Back in Nyeri

A new phase for our project has begun, starting by sending a (mostly) new group to Kenya. After 2 days in Nairobi, Wilco, Jaimie and Paulien have now arrived in Nyeri where they will stay for the coming two and a half weeks. Paulien also joined the first trip, so she knows how the things come around in Kenya. This is really an advantage for the project, as we do not have to ‘reinvent the wheel’. Since she already knows a lot of our local contacts personally and knows a lot of practical things (like where to do groceries in Nyeri) we are able to start with the project right away. For us personally it is also nice, because we are introduced to the people by Paulien and they had a good experience last time, so they seem to trust and like us from the beginning.

Yesterday we had our first meeting in Nyeri at the Thiruku factory. Of course we started with a short tour around the factory, as Wilco and Jaimie only saw this on the pictures the first group brought with them. A difference with the first visit was that now it is high season, so there were a lot of farmers bringing their cherries. This time instead of one weighing scale there were two weighing scales available. After this tour we started with the interview with one of the board members. He knows a lot about cultivating coffee, as he has a flourishing coffee farm himself. We explained our concept and asked him what he thought about it and what his recommendations would be. He liked the concept and got some useful insights from him. Unfortunately, we are not able to put all those nice insights online as we have to be careful due to confidentiality. Some interesting points were:

-        Instead of only sending weather information we decided to also allow factory employees to send factory specific information. This visit showed us what kind of information the factory would like to send to the farmers.

-        We showed a picture of the sign is designed to communicate weather data to the farmers. The sign looked alright and communicated the right things, but the colour of the text (which is now black) needs to be changed into green or blue. Later we figured out that this was because it would draw more attention.  

-        The computer program was seen as useful. The factory employee will need a training to learn the program, but then he will understand it and he will be able to use it.

Today we visited the DeKUT University to get a second opinion from a coffee expert on our project. The University has its own workshop, so we showed the picture of the sign to the head of the workshop and he was more than happy to help us building it. Tomorrow we are able to pick it up, so we can use it for observation at the factory.

In the afternoon we went to see our first farmer to test the concept from a different perspective. Of course this time we got the whole tour around the farm and for Jaimie and Wilco it was so nice to see all these things in real life and actually know what the others had been talking about. The farmer was really enthusiastic about the whole concept and he understood quite well what it was all about. His wife even took notes and sometimes gave some cleaver insights. The best recommendation that the farmer could make was ‘bring this concept to the factory as soon as possible’.

When we were talking to this farmer it started to rain and we were looking at each other smiling. Why would any person smile if it is starting to rain? Well, this is because we predicted that it would rain in the afternoon around that time. We are keeping an Excel with the weather predictions for the next days. At the end of the day we fill in what the actual weather did. And so far the predictions are luckily quite accurate. At least a lot more accurate than the weather forecasts farmers are currently receiving via TV or radio.

From tomorrow on we are going to test our concept with farmers. They will receive daily text messages (from us) about the weather for one week and at the end of the week we will talk to them about their experiences. So the weather predictions being quite accurate is a great help.

In short, the second group is now in Kenya and already gained a lot of insights. We are thankful for everybody making this project possible. We will keep you all updated!

Update from the Netherlands

Our team has been reunited in the Netherlands for two weeks now. Together, we are working on the solutions, according to the findings of our research. This Friday, the second part of our group: Wilco, Jaimie and Paulien will go to Kenya, Irma and Myrthe will stay in the Netherlands to finish the report and work on the implementation of the solution we found.

We decided to divide the final solution into three parts:

• Communication from weather data to the factory; we developed a computer program/app for this. A factory employee should manage this computer and decides on what data is worth spreading and what data should be presented at the factory.
  
• Communication of that data from the factory to farmers on the factory; this will be a large sign at the gate of the factory or inside, this will be decided during the research of the second visit. This sign presents information about the rain and temperature for the coming two days.
  
• Communication of the same data from the factory to farmers, not present on the factory; this will happen through a wireless service send to the phone of the farmer. During the first visit, we found that all famers have a phone in their possession, which they use on daily basis. This service will allow push messages, but also pull. This means the factory employee can send messages when necessary, but the farmer is also able to request information himself.

We have come up with several concepts, which we will present to our coach and one of the companies tomorrow. This provides the ability of adapting the concepts according to the feedback before the prototypes will be taken to Kenya.

In Kenya, the prototypes will be tested with a cooperative board, several factories and farmers. We will try to inform you as much as possible on this blog about the findings, but as mentioned before, we have to be careful due to confidentiality.

We will keep you posted!

Cycles, cycles, cycles …

That’s quite a long time you did not hear from us… sorry!

From now on, it is hard for us to write climate related information on this blog, since we do not want to expose too much information which the companies we work for would not like.

One of the greatest differences between Kenya and the Netherlands lays in perception of the word ‘coffee’. In Kenya, we learned at the farms that coffee is seen as gold, as cash.

“Why did you chose the crop coffee?” “Because it gives me money.” “Which activity do you like the most regarding cultivating coffee?” “Picking the cherries when they are ripe.” “Why do you like this activity the most?” “Because the cherries bring me money.” We did hear other explanations, like “When I’m bored, I just go to my chamber (farm in Kikuyu)  and start any activity” but the main message remains the financial part.

However, in the Netherlands the perception of coffee is definitely about the drink. A warm drink which helps you to stay awake whenever you need it. Asking someone out on a date but also asking whether someone needs  a break, both contain the words: “Shall we have a coffee?”

The farmers do not know how we drink our coffee and especially not how much, and both the farmers and we have no idea about the journey our coffee has travelled before we purchased it.

Before the form of coffee as we know it, there has happened a lot. It starts at the coffee farm: the tree produces flowers, the flowers turn into green berries, the green berries turn into red cherries and the farmer picks these cherries. The farmer brings the cherries to the factory (which belongs to a cooperative). At the factory they sort their cherries into two categories: good (the red cherries) and bad (the under ripe, the overripe and the diseased). The good cherries go to the weighing station at the factory, there it is weighed and written down how much comes from which farmer. The cherries go through the wet mill, where the red pulp is removed and two yellowish beans remain: the parchment. The parchment is dried on drying beds in the factory and then stored. The bad cherries are taken home by the farmer, where he/she has to dry the cherries him/herself. When they are dry, the farmer takes it to the factory again, weighs and leaves the dry cherries there.

The factory sells the dried parchment and the dried cherries to a marketing agent (for instance CMS). The marketing agent has a dry mill where the two categories are separately processed. After this process, the beans have lost their yellowish skin which result in green beans.

These beans are sold through an auction to several roasters. This is the point where the farmers receive the payment for their coffee. Up front they have no idea how much this will be, because this depends on the market at that particular time. Then, the roasters roast the beans which results in coffee beans as we know it!

All farms we have visited were self sufficient in their own way. Two examples:

• In the farms, water tanks are placed to collect rain water. They (all we have seen) do this by fixing pipes to the roofs of the buildings, leading it to the tank. The harvested rainwater is  used for washing and for drinking. Other farmers had multiple tanks, for which they use one to irrigate the kitchen garden.

• The farmer cultivates Napier grass, this grass is used as food for the cow. The cow gives milk (to sell and to consume by the farmer) and leaves feces behind. The feces are used as manure, to fertilize the coffee trees. This organic fertilizer increases the quantity and quality of the coffee, which results in more money for the farmer, this money he/she can use for buying seeds to plant more Napier grass.

We met one farmer, she was a leading (promoting) farmer, active in a water resource association. She founded this together with a few others, using the Green Belt Movement as an inspiration*. The Green Belt Movement is a Kenyan environmental organization, empowering communities (especially women) to conserve the environment and improve livelihoods. This means, apart from Western organizations, Kenyans are also trying to improve these matters, although not all farmers are able to look broader than just their own farm. Trying to get the smallholder farmers to see and understand the bigger picture will be an important challenge.

Today, we (team Kenya) closed our research for now, no more interviews or focusgroups with farmers. Team Netherlands is compiling all of our findings into a report. We are very thankful to everyone participating in this research, with now especially thanks to Regina, our interpreter, Thomas, our driver for the past two weeks, and of course all the farmers!!

Our next step is to develop a few concepts and finally choose one concept to develop into a working prototype. Team Netherlands then will transform in team Kenya and test the product with the farmers we have spoken to already. Today at CMS (Coffee Management Services) we verified a few of the results and made a start with the implementation plan, on which the new team Netherlands will work coming month.

* http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/