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  • In line with the new FNC guidelines, the Extension Service, which provides continued support and technical assistance to coffee growers, will focus on increasing even further the productivity of crops by improving agronomic variables clearly identified.

Under its value proposition to improve profitability of coffee farmers, the Extension Service of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), which provides continued support and technical assistance to producers, has refocused its work on increasing productivity of crops, i.e., more agronomy.

For the FNC Technical Division, the agronomic variables with a direct impact on productivity are clear:

  • Improved varieties (disease-resistant, better adapted to climatic variability and more productive).
  • Higher densities.
  • Younger trees.
  • Better nutrition (fertilization, including more soil analyses to optimize costs).
  • Sun-grown and shade-grown coffee (shade management).
  • Plant health practices (disease control).
  • Right planting season.

“As to age of coffee plantations, it is important for coffee growers to understand that they must not ‘fall in love’ with their old trees. The younger they are, the more productive they will be,” says Hernando Duque, the FNC Chief Technical Officer. “If a tree is not planted at the right time, it will take longer to develop and produce, and producers will see their income delayed,” he points out.

On the other hand, the Extension Service, considered one of the best in the world according to international studies, has always been very close to producers (it is one of its differential attributes). But through a greater number of visits by each extensionist (thanks to better planning and micro-planning), this permanent support and closeness to producers will increase. “The number of served coffee farmers will grow,” Duque notes.

The Extension Service is the main vehicle to transfer knowledge and technological developments from the National Coffee Research Center (Cenicafé), which is also redefining priorities and refocusing efforts toward research that best contributes to raise productivity of coffee plantations, with a clear focus on solving Colombian coffee farming issues.

And under the national program “Colombia Siembra” (Colombia Sows), the sowing of corn and beans on the coffee farms, as a way to provide producers with supplementary livelihood and income, will be encouraged.

Finally, as part of this effort reorientation, procedures and paperwork related to the Quality Management System (SGC), the funding program Permanence, Sustainability and Future (PSF) or the Incentive for Rural Capitalization (ICR) aids, among others, will continue, but without losing sight of the priority to raise crop productivity.