Established: year 2010
Legal status: informal farmer group
Organic farming: started in 2010
Organic Coffee Promotion for Sustainable Forest Conservation Project (OCFC) is located at Wiang Pa Pao district, Chiang Rai, around 90 km south west of Chiang Rai city and 100 km northeast of Chiang Mai city. It takes around 2 hours to travel by car from Chiang Mai.
Agriculture and Livelihoods
The project areas are mountainous, over 700 meter above the sea level. Most of the land is part of the protected conservative forest areas. Over 20 years ago, farmers grow local tea trees in the forest which they harvest the young leaf, ferment and sell them for chewing. Around ten year ago, some development project initiated coffee tree growing where farmers started growing arabica coffee varieties mixed into the forest. Recent years, another government project promoted passion fruit as income supplement for farmers. Many farmers started cutting the tree to establish passion fruit orchard but this lead to tension with the forestry officers.
Farmers rely a lot on forest for food security as they harvest wild plants and animal to supplement their daily food source. No lowland rice cultivation because there is little flat land in the areas and no upland rice farming because the restrictions imposed by the forestry office.
Organic Agriculture
ENF started supporting the group in 2010 by providing technical advices on organic farm management and how to prepare for organic conversion as well as helped to establish an internal control system (ICS) for organic certification and apply for organic certification with the Organic Agriculture Certification Thailand (ACT) in June 2011.
Marketing
A social enterprise company “Green Net SE” was founded in 2012 by private investors to provide market access for these coffee farmers. In 2015, Green Net SE shareholders donated there shares to the Earth Net Foundation.
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