COFFEE OF THE FUTURE

Everything you need

What is the Café del Futuro project?

The National Association of Cooperative Businesses CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA) leads a consortium of cooperatives, farmer organizations and minority-serving institutions in Puerto Rico to direct a project that provides technical and financial assistance to 2,000 underserved Puerto Rican coffee farmers to voluntarily adopt climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices (CSAF). These practices must meet NRCS practice standards in the production of climate-smart (CSC) produce, primarily rust/climate-resistant Arabica coffee varieties, but also shade trees, hardwoods, and citrus on 10,000 acres of land, for four years.

NCBA CLUSA works collaboratively with local organizations such as PROCAFE (Puerto Rico Coffee Producers, Inc.), the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Puerto Rico, the League of Cooperatives of Puerto Rico and other farmer organizations and cooperatives in building markets for climate-smart commodities.

What are your main objectives?

Generate quantified and verified results for CSCs and track them throughout the supply chain so that producers and cooperatives can access new and profitable market opportunities;
Ensure implementation of practices meet NRCS standards;
The League of Cooperatives and other cooperative financial and support institution partners will offer services to participating producers;
NCBA CLUSA's cooperative supermarket and marketing partners will help build markets for CSC Puerto Rico farmers to increase the quality of their products and ensure standards improve in these value chains;
NCBA CLUSA will support PROCAFE to help Puerto Rico farmers grow and market higher quality products that meet market demand while increasing farmers' climate resilience and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Where will the project be carried out?

The Café del Futuro project will mainly impact the following municipalities:

Saint Sebastian
The Marias
Maricao
Lares
Yauco
Attached
Utuado
Jayuya
Ciales
Orocovis

What are the registration and eligibility requirements?

Must have USDA eligibility and Highly Erodible Lands and Wetlands compliance requirements:
Establish farm records with the USDA, Farm Service Agency, and NRCS (have farm, land, and field IDs in place).
Complete AD-2047 (customer data worksheet to facilitate the collection of customer data for the Business Partner Registry).
Certify compliance with HELC and WC through form AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland Conservation (WC) Certification.
Approved NRCS Environmental Assessment CPA-52 Worksheet for each farm covering all practices to be implemented.
Certify that you are not a foreign person or entity.

What are the specific requirements of the project?

A coffee producer with legal ownership for land use and registered with the USDA.
Attend at least 90% of the training on climate-smart practices.
Contribute approximately $0.20/ per coffee tree.
Implement at least three (3) CSAF practices on an average of 5 acres over the life of the project; Incentive payments will be received after at least 6 months of verification of the practices.
Provide the farm data that the project requires.

Collaborators

This website is made possible with support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Climate Smart Farm Partnerships Program. The content of this website is the sole responsibility of NCBA CLUSA, PROCAFE and does not necessarily reflect the views of the USDA or the government of the United States of America.