In order to support coffee farmers as climate change affects the agricultural sector, Nestlé is to pilot a weather insurance program for coffee farmers in Indonesia. With the same goal, the company has also contributed to a guidebook for regenerative agricultural practices that will help farmers address soil health and biodiversity in the region.
The weather insurance program, in collaboration with Blue Marble, will insure more than 800 smallholder coffee farms that supply for Nescafé. As farmers cope with more unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change, the insurance will provide financial protection when farmers face events such as extreme rainfall or severe drought.
Insurance coverage will be determined through satellite imaging that will examine whether coffee output has been impacted by rain levels in a given area. Coffee farmers who were affected will be paid, according to the severity of the weather, in order to restore their crops.
In addition to providing insurance, Nestlé will support farmers with a guidebook for agricultural professionals to help farmers transition to regenerative agriculture. The guidebook, Regenerative Agriculture for Low-Carbon and Resilient Coffee Farms, was developed by the Alliance of Biodiversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, along with contributions from Nestlé.
"The guidebook gives coffee farmers a set of field actions they can implement tomorrow to help them become more resilient to climate change and to diversify their sources of income,” said Pascal Chapot, global head of sustainable agriculture development at Nestlé. “Knowledge is key, and we hope that this guidebook makes these regenerative agriculture practices more accessible to farmers and supports an accelerated transition towards them. This is essential to tackling the climate challenges ahead."
Strategies offered in the guidebook include agroforestry, intercropping, soil conservation, and other agricultural methods that work to use Earth’s resources efficiently and sustainably.
The establishment of these two programs follows the announcement of a pilot project from Nestlé that will work to make low-carbon fertilizer from cocoa shells at the company’s York location. The company has implemented Science-Based Targets to assess its emissions, and support for regenerative agriculture is cited as a key piece to its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
