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 Alternative
for India Development (AID) works in the most impoverished and
inaccessible areas of India. It has decade long experience of
working among the women and the children in the region through
programs of credit support and education for the tribal
children. While closely associating with the community in the
region, the issues related to the coffee production were brought
to its notice.
It started dialoguing with various farmers, trade unions,
government departments such as coffee board, agricultural and
horticultural board, and health departments to discuss on the
issues emerging from the community.
It felt there is a strong need for working on wider platform to
bring about tangible changes among the coffee farmers and the
associated issues in the region. Thus a program to support,
sustain the livelihoods and more importantly to gain the due
rights of the tribal communities has been born. |
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Tribes
living in hilly regions are always excluded from
governance system. Connecting them with governance
resulted in utilisation of various government programmes. |
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 Our aim is to encourage action by
supporting tribal people to regain access to their lost land, to
learn about their rights and sustain traditional practices that
are eco-friendly and which help to supplement the income they
get from the coffee trade.
It would be impossible to encourage change over night in
Yercaud, as there are very few profitable alternate crops to
coffee. We work with people to help them develop in the way they
want in the short and long-term. Coffee has been a major crop in
the area, and to counteract fluctuating prices villages must be
shown the best technical skills to maximise their assets and
earnings from the crops they grow both to sustainably supplement
their livelihoods, but also to feed and support their families.
The prime focus of the
program is on ensuring the:
Right to freedom
from exploitation by middlemen and co-operative marketing of
coffee: |
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Realisation of right to credit, environmental friendly coffee
farming and diversified livelihoods: |
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Creation of
demonstration sites and promoting of agro-forestry and
inter-cropping in coffee farms for increased food and
environmental value addition. |
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Diversified
employment in agriculture and forestry. |
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Training to
landless families in nursery raising, orange, pine apple,
bee keeping, sale of soap nut and tamarind. |
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Extension
and micro credit and insurance support to 3000 tribes. |
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Increase in
utilisation of government employment programmes, food
production and diversified food, employment and income
opportunities. |
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Increased
fair trading and right to minimum and equal wages: |
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Realisation
of fair trading/labour practices in coffee sector. |
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Achievement
of minimum& equal wages to 3000 families. |
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Solidarity
support from fair trade groups and integration of fair trading
and labour practices: |
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Regular
exchange of information among fair trade coffee groups
through website. |
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Increase in
solidarity for securing the interest of marginal coffee
growers |
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Network with
Indian, UK and Europe based fair-trade forums and link up
the co-operatives and their produce with other fair trade
groups. |
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Engaging
government to support for fair trade and fair labour
practices. |
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Local and
global civil society support for marginal coffee growers, land
and livelihood rights of small coffee growers: |
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Continuously
influencing global and national players and actors
connected with global and national coffee trade. |
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Continuous
advocacy initiated for policy action for minimum support
prices of coffee. |
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Direct
support from Coffee Board for small coffee growers and
poor pro-poor coffee trade regime. |
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