More than 200 thousand coffee producers have received support in 2021

The Production for Wellbeing (PpB) priority program delivered direct support for 1.363 billion 163 thousand pesos to 219,865 coffee producers.

More than 200 thousand coffee producers have received support in 2021
Over 200 thousand coffee growers have received support in 2021. Image by Hannoversche Kaffeemanufaktur from Pixabay

As of September 15, the priority program Production for Wellbeing (PpB) delivered direct support for 1.363 billion 163 thousand pesos to 219,865 coffee producers, who have a total surface of 269,99 hectares, informed the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development.

It highlighted that this progress represents practically the closing of the 2021 program in direct support to coffee growers, who are located in the states of Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Nayarit, Jalisco, State of Mexico, Colima and Querétaro.

The support quota per producer was 6,200 pesos, applicable to small and medium scale coffee growers, i.e., with up to five hectares of rainfed land in the first case, and more than five and up to 20 hectares in the second. Of the total number of producers supported, 92.5% are small-scale and the rest are medium-scale; 67.2% are from municipalities with an indigenous population and 41.6% are women.

Agriculture reported that 49% of the total number of supported producers are located in Chiapas, the leading producer of coffee; 42% are in Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Puebla, the next leading states, and the remaining 19% are located in the other states mentioned. The federal agency emphasized that PpB's direct support -which is delivered to corn, beans, wheat, rice, other grains, coffee, sugar cane, cocoa, Apis and Meliponas honey, amaranth, and chia bees- offers liquidity to farmers to invest in fieldwork.

Likewise, in the case of coffee, they are used by the producer to face the volatility characteristic of the coffee markets. Through the Technical Assistance Strategy (EAT), Producción para el Bienestar serves 10,407 coffee growers in Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla, Hidalgo, Guerrero, San Luis Potosí and Nayarit. 42% are women. Forty-two percent are women.

The EAT seeks to reduce production costs, promote and care for quality and encourage the valuation of differentiated and specialty coffees, said the Secretariat.

The priority program works hand in hand with the Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP) to operate the EAT, which promotes agroecological practices that improve yields and income, reduce the use of agrochemicals and promote the use of bio-inputs.

The strategy also promotes the permanence of the biodiverse systems in which small and medium-scale coffee is grown, in coexistence with fruit trees such as pineapples, avocados, guavas, bananas, and other commercial species such as the camedor palm, which are resilient to climate change and allow producers to diversify their income.