Water power for Peru's cloud forest coffee farmers

"Can we produce coffee without wrecking the planet or our bodies"?

This fundraiser is for an amazing sustainable development project in the remote Peruvian cloud forest to design and build a pioneering small-scale watermill to process their fresh coffee beans. The farmers, who are friends of ours, were thinking about using a diesel generator to run this process. Instead, we will work with them to design and build a system that uses hydro-power to extract the coffee beans from the coffee cherry. This will dramatically improve their quality of life, avoid dependence on destructive and polluting fossil fuels, and provide a model that other farmers in the region could adopt. Techo Verde have been working with the farmers since 2016 helping them to secure access to viable markets which value their amazing coffee and their commitment to environmental protection and sustainability.

Read on for more details about the project and the people involved:

The coffee beans in Guillermo and Magaly’s tiny forest farms are turning crimson and gold and that means only one thing. Its harvest time. The families are out everyday from 530 in the morning filling up their baskets and decanting into sacks.

There are songs, laughter, coca leaves and a long lunch at midday but it's hard work in the sun. When day turns to dusk the picking stops but there is no rest. Within 24 hours of being picked the bean must be removed from its red fruit in a process called pulping, otherwise it risks tasting fermented. With no industrial machinery or power this must all be done by hand, a grueling process with the hand-powered pulper.

The first few rotations are fun but once you have been at it for more than five minutes the tiredness kicks in. It takes the immensely powerful Kened about 10 -15 minutes to grind just one load in the pulper but after a day's harvest there are at least ten of these to get through - See Kened at work. 

I remember helping him and Magaly one night. It took two hours between three of us, we worked well into the night under the flickering light of a hand held torch. When we finished it was well after 8pm, just time for a dip in the river, dinner and bed ready for an early start the next day.

Magaly confessed one night that they were thinking of getting a diesel generator to run the pulper. This would save them enormous amounts of time (about 15-20 hours a week), time they could better use looking after other aspects of the coffee production and spending more time with their children. It would also reduce the pressure on their bodies, a strain that takes its toil with many people in the valley suffering chronic musculo-skeletal issues.

A diesel generator however would mean more dependence on climate changing and environmentally destructive fossil fuels as well as noise pollution of a little piece of paradise.

Solar powered batteries could do the job but we would need an entirely new electric pulping machine plus the batteries only have a limited lifetime and come with their own environmental cost. One day, Guillermo said “Could we not use the power of the river ?” A crystal clear river gushes down the mountain behind the farm and that got us thinking… 

Harnessing the power of water:

After some research we discovered that we literally wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Someone had built a hydro-powered coffee pulper in Nicaragua before. And it works! - Nicaragua Hydro-powered Coffee Pulper Project.

We got in touch with the designers, an amazing team of enlightened engineers from Appalachian state university in the US, who were happy to share their designs. Then we found a small company in Peru who manufacture affordable and robust micro turbines.

The ideas and tools are not enough on their own. To turn this into reality we need someone on the ground with engineering expertise, a commitment to the cause and the people skills to work with the farmers to train them in implementation and maintenance.

Step in the amazing Ben; engineer, polymath and one of Techo Verde’s committed coffee drinkers. Ben is also a community conservation specialist with lots of experience in South America. Last year he travelled to Peru to meet Guillermo to see how the coffee was produced and he completely fell in love with the Chilchos Valley. He's really excited by the possibility of heading back and working with the community as a volunteer project manager - meet Ben!

We now have a plan and we hope with all of your help we can make this a reality. Please contribute if you can and share with anybody else you think might be interested. If we make it to our target then any additional funds will be used to repair and maintain the incredible trail that the farmers use to transport the coffee to market on horseback and invest in platforms and solar tents to dry the beans. All donations, however small or big are appreciated and we are offering some lovely rewards for donations over £35.

The plan:

Between September and October 2024 we will work with Techo Verde coffee farmers in the Chilchos valley to:

1. Design and build one hydro-powered pulping system for Techo Verde coffee farmers in the Chilchos valley.

2. Train farmers in repair and maintenance of the system.

3. Train farmers in building additional systems if other farmers in the valley wish to apply the technology including provision of written materials where relevant.

The money (GBP):

1. Building the canal = 175

2. Sedimentation tank = 175

3. Pipework = 300

4. The turbine = 750

5. Transmission mechanism = 150

6. Generator/dynamo = 200

7. Control panel = 100

8. Contingency = 650

9. International flights = 1700

10. Internal travel = 500

11. Food/sundries for 2 months = 600

12. Community visits = 500

13. Local labour costs = 750

Total = 6500

Techo Verde:

Conrad Feather set up Techo verde in 2016 in response to requests from farmers in the Chilchos valley to help them secure a better market for their amazing coffee. Although the farmers were going to huge efforts to protect their environment by growing the coffee under the shade of large trees and entirely organically, they were receiving almost nothing for it. Conrad became friends with the farmers over many years while he was living and working with forest communities in the Peruvian amazon supporting them with their efforts to secure rights over their lands and forests. During this time he came to the conclusion that in parallel with the essential legal work to support communities to protect their forests these communities needed access to markets which valued their amazing produce as well as their efforts to look after their forest homes. See more here.

Our amazing partners:

The viability of this long term venture with the farmers in Chilchos is only possible because of our fantastic partners; Oxford based roasters and coffee lovers - The Missing Bean. The Missing Bean have been accompanying us from the start, patient partners who are prepared to forego maximising their profits to provide stable and generous prices to our farmers. For the last 2 years The Missing Bean have gone a step further and provided additional financial support through a fundraiser with their customers. This year they raised £1866.30 all of which we are channelling towards this project and gets us off to a brilliant start. Thank you to The Missing Bean!

The Rewards (See 'Rewards' section):