Founded in 2016, the Ibukikawa cooperative is a collective of 36 members, 250 contributing farmers, and 3 washing stations located in Bukanda, Ruronge, and Nyamagana. The group is headed by cooperative president Nisubire Ibrahim.
Initially Ibukikawa was formed because the regions of Bukanda, Ruronge, and Nyamagana had no washing stations, and so local farmers had to process their crop at home. This often lead to inconsistencies in quality and an overall reduction in buying price, or in some cases a lack of buyers altogether. Ibukikawa then was a way for farmers to come together and share knowledge, then organise their crops and process it to a higher standard.
The cooperative has three main goals:
- Improve farmer living conditions via better coffee prices.
- Increase coffee production through the planting of seedlings.
- Use training and education to improve coffee quality.
As a longer-term goal, they’d one day like to have their own, large scale estate of coffee trees.
Farmers working with Ibukikawa are supported with the provision of high-quality coffee seedlings for planting on their land, plus bonuses at the end of each season as well as general easy access to the local coffee market.
As their operations improve, Ibukikawa would like to provide farmers with fertiliser and access to small loans
