In our family, the history of Coffee dates back to the early 1970s when my parents who were already planting maize, wheat and sunflower in the area, wanted to diversify. They were eager to grow oranges and other fruit plants, but when they sought the opinion of an agricultural officer, their dream was almost cut short. The officer, after sampling the soils, found out that the area was much more suited for coffee growing than oranges. Looking around and finding out that there was not even a single coffee farmer in the whole district, famed for its large scale wheat and maize production, they chose not to relent on their dream. Sticking to his guns, determined to plant oranges at whatever cost, my dad decided to attend a farmers’ training centre where orange-husbandry was taught. In 1975 armed with some knowledge, he planted the first batch of 100 orange seedlings. He steadily expanded his orange plantation, such that by the time he sadly passed on in 1996, the oranges had covered an area of six acres. Of course, this was always an uphill task, because he was trying to force nature to accept his will; he would spend a lot of money on manure and fungicides for the oranges to thrivel. No wonder, two years after he passed on, the family could not cope with the resurgence of some aggressive fungal disease that was threatening to wipe out the entire crop. This story was narrated to us by my mother. It is a story that would have gone unheard, had we not decided to plant the Kaldi Tree  in 2019.

Am glad we gave it a try.