have been working together for the last 4 years now importing some of the finest specialty Robusta and Arabica from India. SICC has been relentless in creating markets locally and internationally for other alternate climate resilient native coffee species like excelsa among others. The main areas of impact for SICC would be creating economic stability for all their local partners and themselves. Conservation of tree cover, biodiversity in the Western Ghats. Research and development towards new alternative climate resilient coffee species through breeding programs.
AKSHAY DASHRATH & KOMAL SABLE
“ Creating Economic stability for each of the farmers. Maintaining the soil health and creating a strong regenerative baseline. To push boundaries of innovation through a strong research and development program that includes finding new coffee species, running breeding programs, creating markets for these alternative species locally and internationally.”
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Achievements so far:The number of farmers engaging in the Srirangalli community has been increasing in the last two years. They have started seeing the results of their efforts blossom economically which motivates more of the smallholders in the area to join this project. Together with Komal and Akshay, they have started exporting these coffees to roasters around the world.
2023 update: With the help of Akshay, the farmers have been training themselves in different grafting techniques to make their robusta more climate resilient, as Indian robustas have a higher market price locally and are seen as a good investment. Farmers of this project are leveraging this trend in the market and choose to grow Robusta.
What the future holds: Farmers in Srirangalli are also growing other crops like different varieties of cardamom, vanilla to export. Komal and Akshay want to support the Srirangalli community to create their own brand under which they can start exporting their produce.
FOR THE SMALLHOLDER COMMUNITY IN SRIRANGALLI
CREATING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
MECHANIZING PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES
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2023 update: Pavan from Venkids Valley has been an avid innovator especially for processing coffees. Through building several water recycling units, they have brought down the water consumption from 5L to 800 ml for 1 Kg of coffee. They also clean this water using microorganisms that effectively reduces the effluents in the waste water stream and cleans the water sufficiently to be reused again. This kind of automation and technology in coffee production also allows farmers to reduce energy, reuse water and cut costs. Pavan has also invested in indoor mechanical drying beds that can cover the coffee up to 3-4 inches, using a blower and fan, heat is spread evenly across the machine to facilitate unform drying, It reduces the impact of the outdoor temperature on the final drying process.
What the future holds: Further automation by investing in technology that can be used to achieve precision and reduce dependence, cutting costs on man power during harvest season.
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2023 update : Komal and Akshay work with an species expert locally who conducts different kinds of experiments on coffee species to determine which combination of grafting would allow producers to achieve a maximum yield. He runs a nursery that fosters these saplings and are taken to Akshay and Komal's test plots to monitor and understand the results of such experiments. before they can recommend it to farmers in the community. The core focus on this nursery has been to discover local native species that can be grafted on Arabicas/Robusta to make them climate proof as well as economically viable to farmers on a long run.
What the future holds: Continue testing what works through experiments, piloting on test plots. Consult and collaborate with farmers, experts towards developing climate proof coffees that can be economically viable in India . Their tech innovation Tekisic is a proof of concept Chatbot in it's pilot phase that uses AI to support Indian farmers with various agricultural decisions including farming practices, fighting against pests, improving yields. Read more about Tekisic here
KNOWLEDGE SHARING WITH COMMUNITY
COFFEE SPECIES BREEDING PROGRAM
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2023 Update : Working with Dr, Aron Davis as well as other experts to get a deeper understanding of the genetic makeup of natives species and other "interesting" looking coffee plants during his visit and stay at SICC. Identified 11 native species of excelsa out of which they have planted 4 of them to test it's viability in this species block. They have also researched the climate resilience of Excelsa and discovered it is impressive drought resistant abilities can be invoked by grafting it against arabica or robusta to make them climate proof.
What does the future holds: Their research on the identified native species will continue to find more insights on how the plants adapt to the local climatic conditions. Further research and development
Cupping quality of excelsa.
Root systems of excelsa and their impact on drought resistance
Economic viability of Excelsa
Read more about the initiatives from SICC on Excelsa here .
Read about the results of the climate analysis done with 52impact and This Side Up here
