Our first coffe tree is being planted!
Volunteers Meryl and Jatesh measure 6 kg of humanure per tree!
Farmers sit in front of the Bimire School as we plant our first coffee tree!
Greg is teaching our hardworking volunteers the importance of prepping holes for each coffee tree!
Farmers from Bimire and Takure are ready to plant coffee! Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this project!
Community Training
On May 5th and 6th Conscious Impact, in partnership with a Nepali coffee cooperative held two local coffee trainings. One in the community of Bimire and another in Takure. We were grateful to host Ehak Prashad Bykurel from the neighboring village of Sukute to train our community. Ehak works at the processing and distribution center and trains farmers to be successful in creating their own branch of the coffee cooperative. Each farmer was trained in the history of coffee, where and what to plant with coffee, how to prepare the soil, how to take care of the tree, benefits of organic trees, and benefits of the co-op model. We will be helping the community organize into two groups of 25- 30 farmers.
As a part of the training we planted our first 10 coffee trees. These are the first 10 trees of our 10,000 tree initiative. Each tree represents so much more than a tree, they will help to reforest these mid hills in the Himalayas, help mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon, and help support livelihood security by providing cash crops and making agriculture a viable way of life. We’re 10 down and 9,990 to go! We’re so excited to plant all of these trees over the next year. Learn more HERE.
In the next few weeks, as monsoon rains continue to increase, we will be distributing trees to the farmers in our community. Each farmer will receive the amount of trees for the holes they have prepared. Most farmers have asked to purchase between 50 and 500 trees. It will take 3 years for the trees to reach maturity and begin producing fruit.
Over the next few weeks we will begin planting new coffee seeds for next years distribution. We are also continuously planting other varieties of tree to be planted alongside coffee including neem, ippl ippl, jack fruit and other income generating trees.
Camp Training
On May 7th we held a special training for our volunteers. Each volunteer was taught how to properly dig and prepare a hole for coffee. Each hole is prepared with a 50 cm radius and depth. The top soil is separated and each pile of soil is mixed with 3kg of compost. Our tree compost is made specifically from our composting latrines. This means that every volunteer who has pooped in our latrines is contributing to the health and longevity of each tree planted at camp!
We will spend the rest of this week digging and preparing holes!
Are you interested in supporting our 10,000 tree initiative? Learn more, or donate Here! Thank you!
Written By: Bryce G. Tanner
Photography: Rebeca Segal / George Blower