The teams behind Mananasi have been working hard to improve the quality of coffee. They have developed a unique program of farmer training. The training team establish a lead farmer within a community and provide in depth training on agronomy, processing and harvesting. Then they assign 35 smallholders’s farmers to each lead farmer. The small groups are assessed and paid bonuses as a unit so the better the quality of their coffee the more the group is paid.
\nThe lead farmer is paid an extra bonus for the additional training he provides to his colleagues ensuring adequate incentive for the knowledge to be passed on efficiently.<\/p>\n
The Red Cherry program is the next stage in the gradual quality improvement that has been happening in recent years. The program focuses on quality first and foremost by asking farmers to pick only the ripest cherries. The coffee is then dried on raised beds more slowly than the commercial grades. After the coffee is dried further post processing at the mill ensures all the defects are removed to provide the cleanest cup possible.<\/p>\n