When small tea farmers in Kenya become convinced of the benefits of sustainability and tell their neighbours, this has more impact than being visited by an information officer. Encouraged by this method developed by LEI, food giant Unilever is planning to buy sustainably-produced tea from small farmers.
Unilever has an environmentally-friendly line in its Lipton tea brand. Now it is trying to obtain a certificate from the Rainforest Alliance for the tea which it imports from Kenya. Very little artificial fertilizer is used on products certified by the Rainforest Alliance near nature areas and there is no erosion. Furthermore, a limited amount of wood is felled for use during the tea processing. Finally, the labourers receive a decent wage.
In the big Lipton tea plantations in Kenya, it is fairly easy to monitor these conditions. However, Unilever buys nearly forty per cent of its tea from 300,000 small farmers who earn their living from growing tea on a small plot of land, in addition to maize or vegetables, and keeping a few cows.
Two years ago, LEI and the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) developed a method of reaching these small farmers and promoting sustainable cultivation. In the farmer field schools, groups of farmers were trained to experiment and try out sustainable tea cultivation for themselves. This completely transformed the role of the KTDA information officers. Instead of telling farmers what they should do, they help farmers discover what they should do. The farmers then tell pass their wisdom on to other farmers.
According to programme leader, André de Jager from LEI, this works better than traditional approaches. In April of this year, the first four trial projects were completed. Supported by LEI, students from a local university will now measure whether farmers are better off with this method with respect to knowledge, income and welfare and whether they do grow tea sustainably. If Unilever is also convinced of the advantages, this information method will be used for all three hundred thousand farmers. / Joris Tielens