Araku

The history of Indian Araku coffee is deeply linked to the local communities of the Eastern Ghats, the Araku highlands, in Andhra Pradesh. It dates back to 1999 when the infant mortality rate was still very high and the schooling of girls was very low. The Naandi foundation then arrived in the Araku valley with a social and public health project. The teams meet the Adivasis community, the indigenous tribal communities of the Indian subcontinent. And work first to make education accessible to young girls. As we need to find ways to increase farmers' income so that they can send their children to school, the Naandi Foundation teams are studying the region's agricultural potential. The Adivasis mainly practiced subsistence agriculture, mainly cereals, but had almost entirely abandoned the cultivation of coffee, which had been present in Araku since 1920. For them, it was up to Nature to take care of the trees. We had to convey the idea that humans also had the right to take care of trees. And that this land, once in the hands of the English, could be theirs again. We have given power back to the Adivasis and their land.