Productivity and Sustainability

Asociación de Productores Sostenibles & Servicios Múltiples de Café y Cacao (APROSEM) is located in the highlands of Pangoa, Junín, Peru and is commitment to sustainable agriculture and collective action. The association continuously invests in training programs geared towards agroforestry techniques, organic farming, and post-harvest processing. In the last few years, they have implemented several projects spanning from dental health campaign, an investment in field based staff and quality control specialist for 20 lead producers and an environmental based efforts for reforestation and carbon capture. Two projects were completed with the use of $27,460 USD in Community Development Funds. The dental health campaign was carried out for all members and workers. Dental exams and care was provided for over 300 direct participants and extended beyond to their families and at least one worker of their farm. In addition to the dental campaign, the cooperative focused on productivity and quality with direct support for 20 producers was provided via a field extensionist, who provided technical support and guidance for best practices to improve productivity, reduce costs, and adopt sustainable methods. A quality control specialist was an another component of this project. APROSEM is now planning for a reforestation of 0.5 hectares of shaded coffee per producer. The Fair Trade Committee has initially budgeted $14,000 USD to start the project. 480 producers will reforest their coffee-growing areas. The goal is to promote shade-grown coffee, which improves biodiversity, soil health, and long-term sustainability of coffee cultivation.