At Devoción, we are committed to the continuous support of independent female coffee producers in a traditionally male-dominated industry. This year in commemoration of International Women’s Month in March, we carried out an initiative with coffee grower Martha Obando, supporting her with a donation of 5% of the total amount obtained from the sales of the coffee “La Mandarina —Women in Coffee”. Martha is a coffee farmer from the Guavio region who leads the ASOFINCAS Association. There she is recognized as an enterprising, hardworking woman, dedicated to her family and community.
At Devoción, we are committed to the continuous support of independent female coffee producers in a traditionally male-dominated industry. This year in commemoration of International Women’s Month in March, we carried out an initiative with coffee grower Martha Obando, supporting her with a donation of 5% of the total amount obtained from the sales of the coffee “La Mandarina —Women in Coffee”. Martha is a coffee farmer from the Guavio region who leads the ASOFINCAS Association. There she is recognized as an enterprising, hardworking woman, dedicated to her family and community.
After an analysis by our Social Responsibility and Innovation department together with Martha to understand her needs, it was decided to donate the funds raised for two activities: planting trees and setting up a beekeeping project.
To deliver the donation, two weeks ago part of the Devoción team accompanied Martha Obando at her farm. We mobilized our staff from Bogotá to Gachetá, a team of 18 people willing to participate in this volunteer day to help plant trees and set up the hives of the new beekeeping project. In total, we delivered and planted 400 trees, including coffee and fruit seedlings, and built 6 beehives for the new beekeeping project.
We started the journey from Bogotá at the crack of dawn. Our first stop was a lookout viewpoint along what is known as the “Water Route”, a beautiful scenery in the Paramo ecosystem with a view of the valley and lots of local vegetation. After two more hours of travel, we arrived at Martha’s and were welcomed with a breakfast of aguapanela (a beverage prepared with water, lime and panela), eggs, bread and a delicious cuajada cheese prepared on her farm. After this, the Devoción team split in two, one group supporting Martha in the planting of the seedlings and the other in the installation of the beehives.
Reforestation and conservation at a local level, on a small scale, guarantees the conservation of coffee ecosystems. The coffee plants increase income through higher production, and the fruit and ornamental trees guarantee a harmonious landscape with the necessary resources to have a good coffee crop. Some of the benefits of planting these type of trees include providing natural shade, contributing to the conservation of soil rich in substrates preventing erosion, increasing biodiversity, and the fruits obtained can also be for self-consumption or sale to generate additional income.
As for beekeeping, bees, being pollinators, favor coffee crops by contributing important changes in the flavor and shape of the fruit through pollination, as well as contributing to an increase in coffee production and superior quality. Don Manuel Martín, an expert beekeeper in the region, accompanied us and led the installation of the hives and the training for beekeeping maintenance for Martha and some of the Devoción team members.
Beekeeping is a very important practice, producing a variety of products generated by bees and their honeycombs. The economic gain is in the production and sale of honey, propolis, pollen and royal jelly. In addition to their economic contribution, bees are great pollinators, visiting flowers in search of nectar and pollen, transporting the granules that will be used for pollination.
