News and knowledge

Highlighting some of WCR's greatest accomplishments in 2018.

Neighbors driving past the neat rows of baby coffee trees on Raphel Baluku’s farm in Western Uganda, are taking notice and asking questions. The trees are part of a field trial that connects Mr. Baluku to an unprecedented global effort to improve profitability for coffee farmers.

The bustling work happening on this small corner of Mr. Baluku’s small coffee farm in western Uganda was part of something much bigger. As one of an expected 1,100 farmer field trials being installed around the world by World Coffee Research, Mr. Baluku’s plot of land is part of a massive global effort to understand—and improve—the profitability of coffee farmers. The effort, called the Global Coffee Monitoring Program (GCMP), relies on Great Lakes Coffee and dozens of coffee exporters and supply chain partners, working together with WCR to implement the trials. Mr. Baluku’s plot is one of 10 trials that Great Lakes Coffee is assisting WCR to conduct in Uganda.

Mr. Raphael Baluku has been getting a lot of questions about his coffee trees recently. In November 2018, the 54-year-old farmer—in Maliba subcounty, Kasese District of western Uganda—collaborated with World Coffee Research on the installation of an on-farm technology trial (OFTT) plot at his farm.