The declining market of coffee beans in the past three years has driven many farmers out of town in search of odd jobs in cities, Zhang Zixian, head of Lujiang town, Baoshan city, Yunnan province, revealed recently.

"Given our geographical location, we can grow coffee beans that rival the quality of the beans used by Blue Mountain coffee," said Zhang. "However, with the lack of human care and attention, the quality of our coffee beans are lower and can't be sold at a good price."

Coffee trees used to grow in abundance in Conggang and Nankang villages where 12.9 percent of families are registered as poverty-stricken households. The plan to cultivate and harvest coffee beans was implemented in the hope that this could significantly improve the lives of local villagers.

In the first few years, things were booming and agriculturists visited the town to train local famers in the techniques of coffee cultivation. But since the market went bust in recent years, training classes have ceased as farmers have moved to the city to look for other jobs.

However, according to Wang Wandong, an agriculturist working for Starbucks, who headed from Pu'er to Baoshan to train local coffee farmers, checks for pests and assessments of fertilizers and soils are essential to maintaining the growth of coffee trees. He said that the deteriorating quality of local coffee beans is likely the result of overgrowth of the trees without being trimmed appropriately.

Chen Yuanjiao (pseudonym), a six-year-old student at Conggang Primary School, a local boarding school, usually spends three to four hours crossing a mountain to commute between home and school. She can still remember when she was much younger, her parents stayed at home to grow coffee trees, but in recent years when coffee beans were no longer lucrative, they moved to the city to make a living. She told the reporter from Workers' Daily that her only wish now is to be reunited with her parents.

"There are more than 100 pupils in our school who receive no preschool education, they lack fundamental knowledge and know nearly nothing about the outside world. Their families are simply struggling to make ends meet, let alone giving them access to computers," said Zhang Lizhong, headmaster of the primary school.

Shi Yunfu, a local farmer and school teacher, said that coffee trees with a growth cycle of four to five years demand care and good techniques to ensure the sustainability of the entire plantation.

However, when the price of local coffee beans dropped from 10 yuan (US$1.44) to 4 yuan per kilogram, many farmers cut down the trees and set out to the cities, leaving the elderly and children behind.

"I worked as a laborer at the construction site when I was young, but later found that if I didn't learn any new skills from hard labor, it would be better to grow coffee trees at home, because good coffee beans can always be sold at good prices no matter how sluggish the market is," Shi said.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)