I have only once before left the US to explore the world.  I was in high school, then, and did a blitz tour of Israel.  For two weeks in June 2004, I had the great opportunity to explore Zambia.  My knowledge of Zambia was far less than my meager knowledge of Africa.  It was to be an enlightening experience.  I soon discovered that Zambia is located in Southern-Central Africa.  It is a landlocked country, bordered by Zimbabwe, Malawi and Congo, to name a few.

            I went on this trip as a volunteer in the Coffee Quality Instituteís (CQI) Coffee Corps program.  Coffee Corps is a USAID funded program that sends idealistic do-gooders around the globe who are all coffee specialists.  Their purpose is to improve the state of coffee around the world.  

            When I was first contacted about the assignment, my first response was ìZambian coffee?î Iím not the worldís expert on coffee, but I try to keep a good ear to the ground, however, this one slipped by me.  After some reading, my ignorance began to make sense.  Coffee production in Zambia began in the mid-1980ís with a few large, technified farms.  Most of the export went to Europe and, for a long time, it served as a Kenyan substitute.  Only recently has Zambia strived for the specialty market with increased differentiation and quality control. 

            Along with the new identity came the idea of establishing smallholder coffee production (<5 ha) around the country.  A program request was submitted to the CQI and the first visit to check out the scene was in August 2003.  With some time and a good deal of thinking, a smallholder scheme was devised that heavily relied on growing coffee under shade trees.  The extremely long dry season (7-9 months) makes coffee growing very difficult without plentiful irrigation (one of the great benefits of shade trees is water conservation).

            In February 2004, CQI returned to Zambia to begin setting up coffee smallholders in two cooperatives.  For each coop, shade tree seedlings were planted on a central farm as demonstrations to other farmers in the cooperative.  Additionally, a replicated, scientific experiment was installed on one of the older, large farms.  The experiment is designed to test various tree species as shade trees for coffee in Zambia. 

            Come June, I was sent to Zambia to check on the progress of all the shade plantings as well as perform some other duties for the smallholders.  I saw the state of coffee growing in Zambia.  I have seen its strengths and troubles and met many wonderful people who are working hard to make this relatively new crop succeed. 

            The most remarkable thing about the growers in Zambia is that everybody is doing it as a team.  The large farms, which are quite able and self-sustaining, not only see the wisdom in the smallholder scheme, but are eager to help their fellow Zambians.  All of the large farms I visited either actively participate in assisting smallholders (by hosting a shade experiment) or are actively devising plans to help.  I was astounded by the warmth and generosity of the large farms (in fact, every Zambian I met was remarkably friendly and personable).  It is this cooperation that is going to make Zambian coffee succeed in becoming a beloved and respected coffee origin. 

            The biggest problem facing the smallholders is a dearth of water.  Many of them donít have the capital to invest in irrigation even if they had easy access to water in the first place.  Thus, many are fighting hard to even keep their trees alive (the shade trees havenít grown large enough on the demo farms to make a difference, yet).  To add to their troubles, the soils could be better and nutrient amendments are always needed.  To truly complicate matters, though, there is the over-arching problem that there simply isnít any coffee culture amongst the growers; this is a new crop for them.  Coffee is a demanding crop that takes a few years before giving any reward for the toil and labor.  While some extension services are available for the smallholders, there is more work to be done than people to do it. 

            The smallholders have a big challenge ahead of them.  However, with their perseverance and help from the big farmers, local agriculture groups and Coffee Corps, I am confident that in fairly short time, theyíll have things figured our and youíll be eager to get your hands on some Zambian coffee.

Shawn Steiman is a PhD candidate in Tropical Plants and Soil Sciences at the University of Hawaiíi at Manoa.  He specializes in coffee science.  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it