Manos Campesinas is a secondary level organization representing cooperative groups and farmer families across the regions of San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Sololá and Chimaltenango in Guatemala. The association strives to maximize value to member farmers by offering the best prices and providing high quality, context-sensitive technical assistance. Manos Campesinas’ values include a commitment to social responsibility, quality, sustainability, gender equality, and environmental protection. They aim to be the first choice for customers around the world, not only for the quality of their coffee, but also for their quality of service and the positive impact they have in their members' communities.
Manos Campesinas has 36 farmer participants in the Cool Farm Tool Pilot Project managing 119 separate plots.
Founded 1996
1340 members, 1340 Organic
800-2200 m
Quetzaltenango,
Guatemala
1288 Organic ha
Avg Farm Size: 1 ha
December-April
Varieties
Catimore, Costa Rica 95,
Anacafé14, Catuai, Bourbon...
Fair Trade
Organic
Washed
Caramel, almond, cherry, vanilla, milk chocolate
Manos Campesinas is the only 100% indigenous farmer organization in our pilot project. In their region, coffee production developed in a context of extreme land scarcity from colonial dispossession which has influenced their current situation. Each household is currently managing 2-4 separate plots of land averaging production areas smaller than 1 ha/farmer.
Manos Campesinas’ costs of production are elevated due to having to transport inputs to each production area and the corresponding harvest to the wet mill, typically by foot. Such transport inputs are thus lowly emitting, and Cool Farm Tool results further illuminate the planetary value of traditional indigenous land management practices combined with professional technical assistance. They also highlight the importance of first nation permanence on their land and in the market.
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For best quality results, coffee must be harvested when the cherries are ripe. Not green, not overripe. In order to pick the coffee at the right time, smallholder farmers must hire additional labor during the harvest. Farmers in Guatemala have sustained around a 30% production loss due to labor scarcity as young people do not see a future in coffee production and migrate.
To address this situation, Manos Campesinas is implementing a degrowth and efficiency strategy with a conservation focus coupled with a youth-led food security and income diversification program. The organization is working with its members to reduce production areas by 50% while increasing productivity, and expanding conservation areas. Concomitantly, they have invested their environmental service premiums from this pilot into forming local youth leadership groups to raise laying hens. Looking toward the future, Cooperative Coffees and Manos Campesinas will continue to develop resilience strategies focused on food sovereignty, at the intersection of youth engagement and gender empowerment.
