Community Initiatives

How long will coffee beans be available to everyone? When will they grow scarce and become an expensive treat for the richest?

Climate change is slowly altering agricultural landscapes across the world, and it’s affecting coffee production and coffee producers.

At Socii Coffee, we can’t ignore our responsibility to do our part to protect the environment and support the coffee producers on whom we depend.

We have adopted several agricultural practices that benefit the ecosystems where we work. These methods build organic material and microbial activity in the soil to protect crops, increase production yields, and lower surface soil temperatures so moisture retention improves.

  • Reduce Soil Disturbance (tillage)

    In many areas of the world, farmers burn and clear mountainsides and fields in preparation for planting. This method may ease manual labor, but it also destroys lifeforms critical to soil and plant health. Instead, Socii encourages minimal soil disturbance to protect biodiversity.

  • Composting

    Composting is a key part of our agricultural program because it replenishes organic materials in depleted soils. So, we compost as much as possible—like coffee cherries, animal wastes, sawdust, and rice hulls.

  • Crop Diversity

    We encourage farmers to plant a diversified selection of Arabica coffee varieties. Some hybrid varieties are designed to resist plant diseases. This ensures annual income and cash flow. To enhance producer income, the planting of higher quality varietals transforms a simple coffee farm into a portfolio of investments.

  • Erosion Control

    In our opinion, nothing reduces crop yields more than soil erosion and poor farm practices. So, instead, we use organic agriculture techniques to slow topsoil erosion, such as…

    *Sufficient Planning

    *Terracing

    *Hedgerow Crops Utilization

    *CompostingFilter

    *Berm Construction

    *Offset Contour Planting

    _

    Cover Crops

    Perhaps our most important erosion control method is the use of cover crops. Cultivating native grasses, nitrogen-fixing ground covers, and preserving non-competitive weed varieties root the soil in place and prevent erosion. As a bonus, cover crops also keep the ground moist and protect it from ultraviolet radiation in direct sunlight.

1 of 2