Tag Archives: Blue Harvest

Beyond the Source – the co-benefits of water-smart farm practices

2017-01-19 Paul Hicks Comments Off

Last August (time is flying) we posted a summary of the Specialty Coffee Association’s Blueprint for Water Security in the Coffeelands. That paper presented 6 recommendations “to support action by coffee stakeholders committed to increasing water security at origin”. I want to highlight one of the key SCA recommendations, and how it links to an exciting new […]

Wet mills and water use

2016-10-05 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

Wet mills. These are key elements in the coffee landscape. They are the first step into transforming the cherry into a green bean. At the heart, these structures can be relatively simple. They need to receive the cherries, to de-pulp (Some stop here! We won’t get too much into detail with pulped naturals, naturals […]

Calculating Water Benefits on Coffee Farms

2016-06-23 Paul Hicks Comments Off

This a guest post by Will Garde, from the Caffeinated Engineer, who has provided technical support to CRS’ Blue Harvest program this past year. Knowledge-based Coffee Watershed Management We know a lot about sustainable agricultural practices, and the specialty coffee industry has been a pioneer in incentivizing farmers to adapt good practices. But these practices, require time […]

Analyze This: Getting to Know Soils in the Coffeelands

2016-02-24 Hugh Aprile Comments Off

A farmer must know his or her soil. I mean, really know it: what lives in it (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, etc.); what’s decomposing in it and how much (organic matter); how hungry it is (for certain types of nutrients); if it needs a drink or needs to dry out (moisture level); and how it’s feeling […]

Manage Soils to Manage Water

2015-11-05 Paul Hicks Comments Off

This week I’m at a water conference #uncwaterandhealth at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) with about 700 incredibly bright folk, all trying to work out how to manage water better. Great place to learn. Despite all the great ideas here, I am surprised about how few water professionals and researchers connect the challenge of ensuring […]

Blue Harvest and Coffeelands

2015-10-09 Paul Hicks Comments Off

Last week, we announced CRS’ new global coffee program, Coffeelands. In that post, we said that Coffeelands will build the CRS Blue Harvest approach into future programs in the coffeelands. Today, we want to provide you a glimpse of what this means. Background on Blue Harvest Blue Harvest has been highlighted several times in this blog, starting with […]

What the CRS Coffeelands Program means for our research in coffee

2015-10-05 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

“How are you celebrating International Coffee Day?” As Michael mentioned last Thursday, at CRS we’re celebrating by launching a global coffee program. This initiative will take our hard won experience and leverage the relationships that we have created in the private and public sectors to help create a coffee industry that is built on empowered, […]

Coffee Supply Chain’s Hidden Heroes

2015-07-08 Hugh Aprile Comments Off

Hollywood loves a good comeback story. So when I think of the struggles of a coffee community in Honduras called Opatoro, I can’t help but think of them in terms of a Hollywood script. The pitch might go something like this: In 2012, Dunia Martínez, newly elected mayor of Opatoro in rural Honduras, began receiving […]

The Machete vs the Hoe

2015-06-18 Paul Hicks Comments Off

Blessed is the Machete A machete makes a wonderful wedding gift. After working many years with farmers around the world, I learned to value the multiple functions a machete offers a family: it’s a knife, a lawn mower, vegetable peeler, screwdriver, tree pruner, and so much more. A few years ago, my friends Sara and […]

Coffee ground: The importance of soil health

2015-05-27 Hugh Aprile Comments Off

In my last Coffeelands post, as part of our tribute to the International Year of Soils, I promised to seek out experts in the area of soil management and coffee production and to share their invaluable insights with you. Fortunately, I didn’t have to look far. My colleague, Luis Álvarez Welchez, knows soil and coffee. […]