Chapter 2: My First Work in the Field

                                                Climate-Smart Coffee Series 

                          Chapter 2: My First Work in the Field

When I officially joined the Climate-Smart Coffee Project, it didn’t start in an office or a meeting room. It started on the road — moving from village to village, walking through coffee farms, and learning from farmers directly.

Our first major task was collaborating with the international IDH survey, conducted with Sattva Consultancy, Bangalore. On 16th November, we had an orientation session at the Deepthigiri Dairy Milk Society, led by the project coordinator of Sattva Pragathi along with team members Aabita and Debraj. Their guidance made the first day smooth and insightful. Along wi

th us were the MSW students — Benhar, Unais, Gauri Nandana, Manikandan, and Gauri, who were helping conduct the survey. They were great at surveys, but since they weren’t familiar with agricultural terms, our Climate-Smart Coffee intern team - Pranav, Nihal, Anjana and myself -naturally guided and coordinated the process.

Being an agriculture student, I was assigned to Panavalli, Kattimoola, and Thalapuzha. My role was to help translate the technical terms, guide conversations, and ensure the survey captured what was happening on the farms. I wasn’t filling out the questionnaires myself, but I stood with the teams throughout each visit, listening closely, helping where needed, and observing the farms.

Even though I don’t have the full survey questions in my hand, I could hear many of them as they were asked. The survey was focused entirely on coffee farmers, and it tried to maintain gender balance — separate questions for female farmers, male farmers, and farm workers. Some of the questions I remember were about main Inter crops in coffees, fertilizer usage, types and density of shade trees, irrigation, pest management, income, and government schemes.

Many conversations started casually — with a cup of tea, a walk through the farm, or a farmer pointing at a drying coffee branch and saying, “This didn’t happen before.”

What struck me most were the farmers’ frustrations. Even without the formal survey in my hands, I could hear their concerns: delays or confusion with government schemes, struggles with wages, unpredictable market prices, irrigation problems, pests, and climate challenges. These weren’t just isolated problems — they were issues across Wayanad. Walking with them, hearing their stories, I could feel the weight of their daily lives and the challenges of smallholder coffee farming.

Over the next few days, from 17th to 22nd November, we visited 12 locations across Wayanad: Makkiyad, Kunnumalangadi, Thalapuzha, Kattimoola, Kallody, Vakeri, Varadoor, Deepthigiri, Panavally, Mullenkolli, Kabanigiri, and Sugandhagiri. Each village had its own story, its own patterns of rainfall, pests, and coffee growth. The final visit to Sugandhagiri, the hub of tribal coffee and shade-grown coffee, deserves its own chapter — it was an experience I’ll never forget.

A little context: Wayanad is the major coffee hub of Kerala, and it has the GI tag for coffee, making it particularly special. Along with Idukki, it’s one of the two districts driving Kerala’s coffee production. Observing the farms and walking with the farmers made me realize how much climate-smart practices, shade-grown coffee, and local knowledge matter in sustaining this heritage crop.

After these initial surveys, my journey continued — reconnecting with areas I knew from my RAWE internship in September 2022 at the Thanal Agroecology Center, especially Panavally, where I had built relationships with farmers years ago. That story, and my experiences at Sugandhagiri, will come next.

                                         some picture Glimpse from the fields....