In many ways, Colombia has been moving in the wrong direction in recent years. Fortunately, there are bright spots. It's about coffee production, and a very successful collaboration with business and academia.

For four years, together with Caritas Colombia and fertilizer producer Yara, ECOM and the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy (NIBIO), we have helped around 1,400 local coffee families run their plantations more profitably by giving them access to higher selling prices. As a result, the annual profit for the coffee crops has increased from NOK 73,000 to NOK 201,000 on average for each producer.

The project ended in February, after four years, with the aim of introducing farmers to best practice coffee production. To get there, coffee producers have been trained in how to operate in a more environmentally friendly way and what it takes to achieve certification. The latter means being approved as a coffee supplier.

- It has been interesting to see how simple steps can make a coffee production more profitable. For example, one family used the herbicide glyphosate four times a year, thinking it would prevent weeds or diseases in the crop. What they didn't know was that glyphosate instead retarded the normal growth of the coffee plants, reducing the productivity of the plantation.

Vanessa Colorado, Acting Program Manager at Caritas Norway

In working on the project, Caritas has worked with the families and local associations to empower them in terms of sustainability and the way forward.

- We want them to further increase their income in the years to come and improve their living conditions. Another goal is to make them better able to deal with climate change.

Vanessa Colorado, Acting Program Manager at Caritas Norway

In addition to increasing the profits of the coffee growers and their families, the project has helped reduce water consumption by 75 percent. This is thanks to new and more sustainable irrigation systems.