Farmer School for Farm Renovation

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Creating Thriving, Resilient Communities Through Coffee

At Bean Voyage, we believe in a world where smallholder women coffee farmers have the tools, training, and opportunities to build thriving, resilient businesses. Thanks to our partnership with Coffee Vision Fund, we are excited to expand the Farmer School for Resilient Communities in Mexico!

The Challenge: Barriers for Women Coffee Farmers

In Mexico, smallholder coffee farmers face significant barriers to improving productivity and ensuring sustainability on their farms. Persistently low coffee prices leave farmers unable to invest in essential inputs like fertilizer, equipment, and farm renovations. This limited access to resources, combined with inadequate knowledge about modern, climate-resilient farming practices, results in low yields and poor economic returns.

Women farmers experience additional barriers, including limited access to training, financial resources, and decision-making roles. These gender-related disparities contribute to increased vulnerability to food insecurity and economic instability. The lack of gender-equitable access to resources makes it harder for women farmers to adapt to climate change and market volatility.

Program Highlights

This year, we’re scaling up our efforts! Our goal is to support 150 smallholder women coffee farmers in Veracruz and Chiapas, equipping them with the knowledge and resources to create sustainable livelihoods.

Training and Mentorship: Workshops (in-person and whatsapp based) and training modules focusing on sustainable farming practices, climate resilience, and business management.
Seed Funding: Disbursement of small grants ($500-600 per participant) to help participants renovate and enhance farm infrastructure, purchase inputs, and improve farm operations.
Peer Support and Networking: Facilitate ongoing mentorship and a peer network where women farmers can share experiences, challenges, and solutions, strengthening their leadership capacity.
Market Access: Provide avenues for participants to access national and international coffee markets, ensuring better income potential for their produce.

Timeline

- Onboard the group on Bean Voyage work values and plan
- Conduct a diagnostic visit to collect baseline data on the current status of the farmers (productivity, governance of the group, decision making.)
- Conduct quality evaluation of their coffee for baseline data (March 2025)
Training modules:
- Gender &Community
- Climate Smart Agriculture — soil, varieties, agroforestry, pruning, farm renovation
Training modules:
- Plant Nurseries for farm renovation
- Income Diversification (hen keeping, bee keeping, home gardens, bio inputs production)
- Action Plan development
- Between June and July, participants submit their action plans to be funded. In these plans, they outline their vision and specific details about the farm renovation project.
- We form selection committees responsible for evaluating the plan and providing feedback.
- Based on the overall participation in the training and the action plans submitted, a select number of participants are awarded a grant of $500-600 per participant.
- Our team visits to provide follow-on support and guidance on project implementation/farm renovation. We also connect with additional peer mentors, who are alumni of this program that offer support to the new cohort with their guidance and mentorship.
Our team conducts additional visits with subject-matter experts to provide further support for successful implementation.
Select participants will receive full scholarships to participate in the fourth Women-Powered Coffee Summit to connect with an opportunity to present their learnings from the implementation of the action plans.
Bean Voyage conducts a rigorous before and after evaluation, along with case studies and a key findings report which will be submitted to all key stakeholders after the initiative. The report will be published in February 2026.