Name: Ngoma CWS
Location: Cyeshero Hill, Rugeregere village, Nyamasheke District, Southern Province
Manager: Claude Munyurwa
Capacity: 250 MT (metric tons) of cherry
Foundation: 2006
Year in which it started working with Baho: 2020
Altitude range of the farms: 1500 to 1850 m
Number of farmers: 1006 smallholders (52% men and 48% women)
This coffee was grown by smallholders at Cyeshero Hill in Rugeregere village, where Ngoma is located. Ngoma is one of Emma Rusatira's favourite washing stations. It's where he likes to bring clients because the views are beautiful. Emma is planning to build a house by the lake where he can host guests.
The main economic activities in Rugeregere are mining, coffee farming and fishing as the village is located near Lake Kivu. Rugeregere village is well-known in Nyamasheke District due to the rich variety of minerals. All locals take part in the traditional Umuganda, when Rwandese clean the public roads and support vulnerable people.
At our CWS we have been blessed to witness an interesting tradition developed by farmers and our staff. During the coffee season, they all try their best to save some money which they later combine. They come together as a general community and have a big party. There is dancing, eating, drinking and a coffee Q&A challenge!
Nyamasheke is an area with many washing stations and the competition for cherry is very high. It has a good combination of soil, which is volcanic, and temperature. The days are hot but, at night, the lake blows cool air on the raised beds, helping to control the drying process. It brings the heat of the coffee down and helps with flavour development. This coffee doesn’t dry quickly. It does so in a slow and uniform way, giving this coffee a strong character. Emma also uses the hills in his favour, putting the raised beds between hills to help drive the air to them.
Emma supports farmers with access to fertilisers and donations of seedlings, helps them to check the condition of their trees and trains them through the Farmer Field Schools with GAP analysis, aimed at understanding agronomic conditions, practices, challenges, and farmer attitudes. Furthermore, he supports the farmers by covering their social insurance and giving them second payments at the end of the crop.
Baho developed its own grading system that goes one step beyond the traditional grading in Rwanda. All Baho stations employ their own extended grading system to separate beans into different qualities and sizes. They provide three sizes of beans: A, B and C. Grade A are the largest and of the highest quality. At Baho Coffee stations, grade A is further separated into two grades(A+, A-) and grade B into two separate grades (B+, B-), with C remaining a single grade. This is done for all washed coffee.
“Baho means "stay alive" or "be strong", "don't give up". It is the kind of thing you say to friends when they tell you of their misfortunes or problems. When they want to give up. You hug them and say "Baho!". You give them comfort. This is what I aim to achieve with my company and the coffees we produce, to give comfort to the ones who drink it and the ones who grow it. It is something that is deeply connected to my personal history as a genocide survivor and to the journey of coffee. Coffee is a crop that goes through many difficulties. It is hit by the weather, by bad management, then you pick it, heat if with fire… If you could ask coffee to tell you its journey you’d cry. I believe coffee can, in fact, speak. And for me, it says something like... Baho.”
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