The inspiration behind our farms and outgrower program

The inspiration for our outgrower farmer program was na unexpected insight. It began with a walk through the remains of what was once one of Madagascar’s finest coffee farms.

Between roughly 2000 and 2009, an American farmer established and operated a coffee farm here in Madagascar. He invested in the right varieties, good agricultural practices, and building the team needed to produce exceptional coffee.

And it worked.

When he entered his coffees in the Taste of Harvest Africa coffee competition, coffee from this farm won first place in a blind tasting. It competed against coffees from traditional coffee producing countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia—places already recognized around the world for quality—and won.

The farm showed teh world what Madagascar was capable of producing.

But for a variety of reasons, the owner had to leave the country. Without someone there to lead the farm, gradually fell into disrepair.

We have visited the site several times because we have a vision of bringing it back. But walking through it today is difficult. In places, you have to search to find the few coffee trees still standing. They are no longer productive. They sit among the remains of what was once a thriving farm and an extraordinary example of what coffee in Madagascar could become. 

On one of those visits, I left the farm feeling somewhat depressed.

Before leaving, I visited a few coffee parcels of community members.  

What I found surprised me.

These were some of the most beautiful small coffee parcels I had seen in Madagascar. The trees were properly spaced. They were green, healthy, maintained, and productive.

This was very different from many of the parcels we had visited elsewhere. In too many places, coffee is planted and then, as people sometimes say here, “left to God.” The farmer hopes the rain will come, the trees will survive, and there will eventually be something to harvest.

But these farmers were doing something different.

I asked them why.

They explained that they had once worked on the old coffee farm.

While working there, they had learned how to take care of a coffee tree. They learned how to keep it healthy and productive. They learned how to understand the soil, what inputs might be needed, and how to identify and prevent diseases.

The farm itself had nearly disappeared, but the knowledge had not.

It was still there, living in the hands of the people who had worked on it.

The Lesson

That conversation was a 'AH-HA' moment for me.

During MCC’s first years, we spent a tremendous amount of time traveling to coffee communities. We visited farms, organized training, and explained how farmers could better manage their coffee parcels.

That work is important, and we continue to do it. But training alone has limitations.

Someone can stand in front of a group and explain pruning, soil health, spacing, disease management, or harvesting practices. Farmers may understand the information. They may even agree with it.

But then the trainer leaves.

The farmer returns to the same parcel, with the same limited resources, the same risks, and the same uncertainty about whether changing a practice will actually produce a better result.

The farmers living near the old coffee farm had experienced something different. They had worked with coffee every day. They had seen well-managed and poorly managed trees growing close to one another. They had watched what happened when a tree was pruned correctly, when the soil was cared for, and when disease was treated before it spread.

They did not only hear what good agricultural practices could accomplish.

They saw it.

And seeing is believing.

Growing Coffee Shoulder to Shoulder

That realization helped shape our approach at MCC.

We do not want to work only as an organization that arrives in a community, provides training, and leaves. We want to grow coffee shoulder to shoulder with farmers.

That means working under the same conditions they face.

We experience the same rainfall, the same plant diseases, the same labor shortages, and the same challenge of finding the resources needed at the right time. When something does not work, we have to understand why. When we find a solution, we can test it, improve it, and share it.

We learn together.

This also creates places where farmers can see the results for themselves. They can compare a tree that has been properly pruned with one that has not. They can see the difference that spacing, soil care, shade management, or disease prevention can make.

None of these practices require magic. Farmers do not need an advanced degree to understand them. But they do need the opportunity to see them working in conditions that resemble their own.

They need evidence that the additional effort is worth it.

Most importantly, they need partners who are prepared to face the same challenges beside them.

What the Old Farm Left Behind

It would be easy to see the abandoned farm only as a story of loss.

A farm that once produced one of Africa’s best coffees was allowed to disappear. Most of its trees are now gone. Madagascar lost not only coffee production but also a powerful example of what the country could achieve.

But that is not the entire story.

The farm also left something behind.

It left knowledge in the surrounding community. It left farmers who understood how a coffee tree should be cared for. And it left proof that Madagascar can produce coffee capable of standing beside—and even surpassing—some of the most respected origins in the world.

Our job now is not simply to recreate what existed before.

It is to take what was learned, build on it, and create a model that lasts: farms where knowledge is demonstrated rather than only explained, where challenges are solved collectively, and where farmers can see a path from better agricultural practices to healthier trees, stronger harvests, and better incomes.

The old farm showed us what is possible.

The farmers around it showed us how that possibility can endure.

Now we are beginning again—shoulder to shoulder.