For most smallholder coffee farmers in Siddapur taluk, a question about a struggling bush or an unfamiliar pest waits until the next season to answer itself. On 23 July 2026, nearly 70 coffee farmers from Uttara Kannada district put those questions directly to scientists from the Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI) and the Coffee Board of India, and left with answers they could apply on their own plots.

This training session at Balesara was organized as part of the Empowering Youth in Coffee Production in India (2025–2028) project, a multi-year initiative by Fairtrade NAPP and Fairtrade Austria with support from Julius Meinl 1862 GmbH. The project aims to strengthen the livelihoods of Fairtrade certified coffee farmers in Kerala and Karnataka, promote climate-resilient and sustainable coffee production, and create greater opportunities for young people to contribute to the future of the coffee sector.

The training brought together members of three Fairtrade certified producer organisations: Hirehadlu Farmers Producer Company Limited, Malenadu Savayava Krishi Parivar (R) and Prasanna Ganapathi Farmers Foundation. Experienced growers sat alongside farmers who are new to the crop, including several who are planting coffee in areas where it has not been grown before and who are considering joining the Fairtrade system.

Coffee here grows in small holdings under tree shade in the Western Ghats, and the questions farmers brought were practical: which variety suits my slope, why my bushes are losing vigour, and how to plan for a season that no longer follows the old pattern.

Matching the Planting Material to the Land

Farmers worked through agro-climatic conditions, selection of planting material and nursery raising technology with CCRI scientists, and came away able to judge which varieties suit their own altitude, rainfall and shade. For those opening up new coffee areas, this changes the starting point of a plantation: the choice is now based on what the land can support rather than on what a neighbour happened to plant. The session on planting and aftercare carried them through the first years of a young plantation, the stage when small decisions are hardest to reverse.

Reading the Bush: Soil, Water and Plant Vigour

Sessions on soil health and nutrition, plant vigour and bush management, weed management and water management gave participants a way to read what a bush is telling them. Farmers learned to connect visible signs above the ground to what is happening in the soil below it, and to time nutrition and pruning decisions accordingly. These are the routine judgements taken dozens of times in a year, so a sharper eye here shows up directly in the next harvest.

Putting Names to the Weather: El Nino, La Nina and the Changing Season

The session on climate change and climate vagaries set out how shifting weather is affecting coffee in the major producing countries, and explained what El Nino and La Nina actually mean for rainfall, blossom showers and harvest timing. Farmers in Uttara Kannada have been living with erratic rain for several seasons. This session gave them the vocabulary and the wider picture to make sense of it, and to see their own plots as part of a pattern that can be planned for rather than only endured.

Coffee Under Trees: Agroforestry, Diversification and a Lighter Carbon Footprint

Coffee in this region is already grown under shade, and the training built on that strength. Sessions on micro climate management, crop diversification, partial mechanisation under agroforestry systems, and pest and disease management showed how tree cover, intercrops and careful spacing work together as one system. The discussion on carbon footprint and low-carbon coffee farming connected these familiar practices to the questions buyers and markets increasingly ask, while diversification opened a conversation about spreading income across more than one crop. Sessions on harvesting and processing closed the loop between what happens on the plot and what reaches the buyer.

A Fellow Grower on Quality, Cupping and Export

Mr. Prasanna Kumar, a progressive coffee farmer, shared his own experience of establishing a nursery, choosing suitable varieties for different regions, maintaining quality, and the practical realities of exporting. His account of cupping, and of why the taste in the cup decides the price, brought the day's technical sessions to a point farmers could act on. An open question and answer session with the CCRI and Coffee Board experts followed, and participants used it to clarify doubts they had carried for seasons. Farmers growing coffee for the first time were among the most active in that exchange.

Voices from Balesara

“The training conducted on 23rd July was really educational for us and the rest of the farmers. Subject experts matter for these trainings and that is where the training was successful, as the NAPP team was successful in inviting the right experts for the training topics.”

- Siddarth Hegde, farmer, Hirehadlu Farmers Producer Company Limited, India

“The training provided by CCRI and the Coffee Board was very useful for our farmers, especially the coffee production practices. We could understand the meaning of El Nino and the effects of climate change.”

- Praveen Shet, farmer, Malenadu Savayava Krishi Parivar (R), India

Following the New Plantings

Fairtrade NAPP will follow up on how much coffee area the participating farmers go on to plant, and on the new farmer organisations that take up membership in the Fairtrade system. Growers establishing coffee in new areas can expect the first years to ask a lot of them, and continued technical support from CCRI and the Coffee Board of India is planned so that questions arising at the establishment stage can be answered as they come up. There is considerable room to expand the coffee area in Uttara Kannada, and farmers here are well placed to take it up.

Further trainings under Empowering Youth in Coffee Production in India are planned in Wayanad, Idukki and other parts of Karnataka, carrying the same combination of scientific research, farmer experience and open discussion. Fairtrade NAPP works alongside its producer organisations over the long term, and the Balesara session is one step in that continuing collaboration rather than a finished piece of work.