Community Context
Floresmiro Piamba lives in the village of Chindaco, on the Nasa indigenous reservation of San Lorenzo Caldono. At just over 2 hectares, his coffee farm is larger than many of his neighbors, and other members of CENCOIC. But they still produce just over 8 bags of Excelso grade or better every year, in part due to heavy shade, and cool clay soils. For this Floresmiro believes in his coffee, and has taken every extra step to advance himself – from getting FairTrade certified to completing his USAID-sponsored, CQI-designed ‘micro-processors certification’ course to improve the quality of post-harvest production.
CENCOIC is a collection of 1059 smallholders located around Cauca in Southern Colombia. Together, this group boasts just over 1000 hectares of coffee under cultivation, but as individuals, farms are small and yields are too.
CENCOIC has been active for many years, but was organized as an exporter in 2018 to represent the Nasa indigenous community to the international market. There are an estimated 60,000 people who still speak the Nasa Yuwe language, and they are located across Tacueyó, Caldono and Las Mercedes (all departments within Cauca).
Their motto is “unity, earth, culture and autonomy”, all of which are expressions of their unique identity and history. Their focus is on preserving cultural traditions, social ties, ancient knowledge and their local environment in the context of a country that is quickly commercializing.
They describe their farming as ‘traditional practices enhanced by advanced training’. Activities include training in the field and in the classroom, collection of plastics for recycling into flotation tanks, the construction of bio-factories, and ongoing sensitization on environmental protections. Coffees are processed at home; but farmers have been taught how to treat the ‘honey water’ used during fermentation and return it to their fields as fertilizer.
