Ngoe Farm AA by Helen Gichohi - Muranga County - Lamu Youth in Coffee Project

Ngoe farm is located in Kiru Location, Kiriani sub-county in Muranga County, on the border with Othaya in Nyeri County. The farm has a total of 11,000 trees of arabica coffee, the majority being old SL 28 and Ruiru 11 varieties. More recently, the owner Helen Gichohi and her team have planted some Batian as well.

The coffee farm has been in existence for over 30 years but was abandoned a few years after the previous owner passed away. A part of the coffee farm was recovered about 10 years ago and it has slowly been rehabilitated to produce high-quality coffee since.  The farm has its own wet mill and associated infrastructure. The farm also has year-round access to water from a borehole and a nearby river but the coffee is currently not irrigated. Plans are afoot to do so, to upgrade the infrastructure but most importantly to increase production and fulfil the great potential of the farm. Ngoe employs 3 full-time staff and relies on daily wage labour depending on farming and management needs.

Helen is a conservation biologist by training.  She took over from the previous owner and because she had little experience in coffee farming she decided to have all the coffee cut back to give time for some learning and reflecting.  In honour of the previous owner, who successfully introduced coffee to the region and was passionate about growing it, she decided to retain it, though she had full-time work elsewhere.

Helen had previously been involved in the coffee sector in her role as the head of the African Wildlife Foundation in the region. Under a project funded by Starbucks AWF, she supported farmers in 3 large cooperatives in Nyeri. The funding provided technical assistance to farmers to improve coffee farming practices and also supported cooperatives with improvements in management.

Although Helen was only marginally involved in the work on the ground, she did get a good impression of the challenges and opportunities in the coffee sector.  In the recent past, however, she was not able to invest much in the farm. But over the last two years, this has changed. She is now investing more time and money and looks forward to an exciting time as she engages more to increase production and to better understand the sector. 

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Vava Coffee dedicates 10% of the revenue from all coffee sales to funding the Lamu Youth in Coffee Project. This initiative is organised by Gente del Futuro (People of the Future), a collective created by Vava and made up of passionate people working towards empowering coffee communities, especially young women and girls.

The goal is to transform communities by providing economic opportunities. These come through coffee trade, education and capacity building. And all this happens at the Lamu Coffee School.

Why Lamu?

Lamu is an island on the coast of Kenya. It is heavily dependent on tourism for economic sustainability as well as on informal jobs in fishing and farming.

The level of unemployment is high: only 21% of the population is in formal employment! Lamu also has some of the lowest literacy levels in the country.

The lack of opportunity drives Lamu’s youth to crime and drugs. It’s not a cliché. It’s reality.

“We believe this initiative can provide more gainful employment and various opportunities to young people, generating economic stability for themselves and their families,” says Vava.

“Our first cohort of students recently successfully completed the foundation courses in Brewing and Barista offered by the Specialty Coffee Association. We are looking towards this cohort doing their intermediate courses this November as they continue on their path towards a professional coffee career.”