Project background
Dien Bien and Son La provinces are located in the far north-west corner of Vietnam. With the majority of the population made up of ethnic groups who are often isolated, marginalised and unable to speak Vietnamese, they are the poorest provinces in Vietnam.
Women from remote ethnic groups are often disadvantaged because of unequal rights, few opportunities and little access to education. On top of burdensome household workloads, many women support their families with basic farming of coffee. They generally farm alone and as a result have little bargaining power, cannot easily access or afford farming tools, and have limited knowledge about selling their produce.
CARE is helping women in Dien Bien and Son La provinces build sustainable, resilient and profitable livelihoods that benefit the whole community by providing new skills and techniques to improve farming practices.
Project aims
Ethnic minority women farmers tend to have low bargaining power, difficulty in accessing fertiliser, seeds and pesticides, and do not have opportunities to learn about how to improve production, processing and profits from other farmers.
Engrained cultural norms and burdensome household responsibilities mean that women tend to farm individually and lack vital links to markets and service providers where they need a collective voice for negotiation.
The TEAL Coffee Project aims to help women in Dien Bien and Son La provinces in Vietnam to build sustainable, resilient and profitable livelihoods that benefit the whole community by providing new skills and techniques to improve farming practices.
Project objectives
The project’s objectives are to:
- Introduce new technologies and farming techniques to farmers, to improve production, market access and income.
- Establish women-led producer groups to increase collective action and bargaining power.
- Help link coffee producers with input providers, extension services, buyers, processors, and other value chain actors.
Project outcomes
By improving farming practices, building confidence and giving women the ability to act collectively when selling their produce to market, the project will help break the cycle of poverty facing ethnic minority families.
With your support, at the end of the project CARE aims to see ethnic minority women farmers:
- Being recognised as valuable contributors to the farming sector and the community.
- Benefiting from increased income.
- Taking loans to support their businesses while being supported by the implementation of policy.
Project costs
Funding towards the TEAL Coffee Project project will support:
- Ethnic minority women farmers to escape poverty by introducing new agricultural techniques and technologies to improve production, market access and income.
- Position ethnic minority women as valuable coffee farmers, by establishing women-led producer groups.
Partners and community involvement
CARE ensures the project is sustainable by implementing the project with a wide range of local partners. For example, CARE will work in partnership with the Dien Bien Centre of Community Development (CCD), Son La Women’s Union (SLWU) and the Son La Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).
CARE and implementing partners will link coffee producers with input providers, extension services, buyers, processors, and other value chain actors.
The TEAL Coffee Project will also work with the private sector, working with companies on product promotion to increase market demand for Arabica coffee sourced from Son La and Dien Bien.