In the coffee hills of Wayanad, farming has always followed nature’s cues - the first rain, the bloom, the quiet signals of the soil. But today, those signals are shifting. Rainfall is unpredictable. Temperatures are rising. Generations of instinct are being tested by a changing climate. This district in Kerala, India where coffee has been grown for generations, that knowledge is being tested by something the farmers did not cause and are only beginning to fully understand, a shifting climate that plays by different rules.

On March 10, 2026, forty-six farmers from the Empower Coffee Areas Wayanad Farmer Producer Organisation (ECAW) gathered at Hotel Saffron in Sultan Bathery for a day of learning that brought together two worlds that rarely sit in the same room- academic science and the lived experience of people who work the land.

The workshop, organised by Fairtrade NAPP, was not a lecture. It was a conversation, and by the end of it, some of the most fundamental ideas in modern environmental science had found a home in the minds and language of farmers who are already seeing the effects of climate change in their fields.

Technical Session with Coffee Board of India and College of Climate Change and Environmental Sciences

The morning began with formality. Dr. M. Karuthamani, Joint Director for Extension at the Coffee Board of India, opened the proceedings. Dr. Rudhragowda, Deputy Director for Research at the Coffee Board, offered a key address. Then the technical sessions took over, led by researchers from the College of Climate Change and Environmental Sciences at Kerala Agricultural University.

Dr. Sanjo Jose was the first to speak, and his subject was the one the farmers already feel in their bones- the changing climate of Kerala. Rainfall that no longer arrives when expected. Temperature shifts that throw off the rhythms of flowering and fruiting. A seasonal uncertainty that makes planning harder than it used to be. Dr. Sanjo did not frame these as distant projections. He described what is already happening in the state, in the hills, in the fields that the people in that room go back to every evening.

The message was clear. Climate-sensitive farming is no longer a choice between the conventional and the progressive. It is becoming a matter of survival for farmers across the region.

The second session, led by Ms. Abhishna P.V., took the group into territory that sounds abstract until you understand the stakes. The carbon cycle, that movement of carbon through the air, through plant tissue, through soil, and back again, is not just a diagram in a textbook. Farming activities influence it in real ways. Agricultural land can either release carbon into the atmosphere or hold it in the soil. How a farmer manages their land matters, not just for their own harvest, but for something much larger.

The third session, led by Dr. Shahidha P.A., was the one that drew the most engagement. Biochar, a carbon-rich material produced by heating biomass under low-oxygen conditions, is emerging as one of the more practical tools available to farmers who want to improve their soil while also contributing to carbon management. It can be produced from agricultural waste. It can improve water retention and soil fertility. It connects the immediate, practical concerns of a coffee farmer with the broader challenge of building a more resilient agricultural system.

In Their Own Words

“This training program organized by Fairtrade NAPP together with the College of Climate Change and Environmental Sciences helped us better understand climate change and its impact on agriculture. The experts explained practical methods that we can apply in our farms to improve soil fertility and manage resources more efficiently. It gave us new ideas to improve our farming practices and reduce costs in a sustainable way.”

-         Nikhil T.J., 34, Coffee farmer, Empower Coffee Areas Wayanad FPO

“The workshop organized by Fairtrade NAPP in collaboration with the College of Climate Change and Environmental Sciences, Kerala Agricultural University was very useful for us farmers. We learned about climate change, soil health, and the benefits of using biochar in our farms. The session helped us understand how improving soil health can increase productivity while also protecting nature. I believe these learnings will help us make our coffee farming more sustainable in the future.”

- Pachikkal Biju, 51, Coffee farmer, Empower Coffee Areas Wayanad FPO

What is notable in both accounts is the same thing. These are not farmers who were told what to do. They are farmers who were given understanding, and they know what to do with it.

Why This Work Matters

Fairtrade standards go beyond price. They call on producers to adopt practices that are environmentally responsible and forward-looking. That commitment is not easy to fulfil in the middle of a changing climate, when the conditions themselves are becoming less predictable. Supporting farmers to understand what is happening and giving them practical tools to respond is one of the most concrete things that Fairtrade NAPP can do.

Also present at the workshop were representatives from outside the Fairtrade system, Mr. Sathyanath Inchora of Vedya Natural, and Ms. Shubha Nair of FARMYARDS. Their presence represented a model of what a broader coalition could look like.

Extension work, the kind that takes scientific knowledge from a research institution and makes it useful for a farmer in Wayanad, requires sustained effort. One workshop does not transform a landscape or a practice. But it opens a door. It builds a shared vocabulary. It gives the people who grow our coffee a stronger foundation for the decisions they will make in the seasons ahead.

A Longer Road

The hills of Wayanad are not going to stop growing coffee because of a single difficult year, or because the rains are arriving differently than they used to. The farmers who gathered in Sultan Bathery on a March morning are not looking for someone to rescue them. They are looking for information, for context, for the kind of knowledge that helps them make better decisions on their own terms.

That is what Fairtrade NAPP came to provide. Not answers, exactly, but the tools to find them. In a world where the climate is shifting and the stakes for small producers are growing higher, that kind of support is not optional. It is the work.