Burundi - Beyond Flagship: Livestock Project

By purchasing our Burundi Sucafina Originals and select microlots from our vertically integrated supply chain, you are supporting a project that establishes livestock solidarity chains that make livestock accessible for coffee farming families. As part of our Beyond Flagship program line-up, this initiative supports improved income, access to microcredit, women's business development and inputs for organic agriculture as just a few of its components, thus contributing towards our IMPACT living income goal.

Introduction

This IMPACT Beyond project works through community-based Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) to help create livestock solidarity chains. The project is part of our IMPACT Beyond Flagship Programming, which makes it easy for roasters to contribute toward their sustainability goals. 

The Rationale

Coffee farming families in Burundi mostly depend on coffee for their annual cash incomes and, as a result of small farms and aging trees, incomes are low. 100% of coffee households are below the LI benchmark, and coffee represents only 25% (on average) of income earned.

Livestock can help families increase their revenue stream by up to 60% within 6 months as they sell offspring and products like milk. Animals like pigs and goats can thrive on household food scraps and foraged vegetation and turn that into valuable products that they can sell. Keeping animals can also increase nutrition by giving families better access to milk and meat, and livestock manure can be used to fertilize coffee trees and improve yields.

Goats and pigs are multi-functional. They are relatively easy to care for and can survive on shrubs and trees. They can have an immediate and ongoing impact since they reproduce quickly and each female can have several offspring.

Farmers can use manure to fertilize their coffee trees, thus increasing yields and quality. Families can drink or sell goat’s milk, creating additional sources of income.

Project Components

• Establishment of new VSLAs: Micosavings and credit groups will be run entirely by women.
• Purchase and Distribution of Livestock: Start-up micro credit to buy and manage goats and pigs will be provided.
• Livestock Solidarity Chain: Livestock 'starter kits' will be distributed to a small number of households to begin, but upon each successive generation, offspring will be passed on to new members of the VSLA.

Outcomes/Impact:

Sucafina Burundi works closely with the coffee farming communities where we source coffees. We’ve supported the creation of Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) groups that work together to save money and provide fair access to financing for members. Members told us that they would like to increase livestock ownership in their communities, and we listened! Livestock chains help VSLA members access livestock and increase their household income through income diversification.

How it works: livestock ‘starter kits’ of 1 male and 10 female animals (goats, pigs or cows) are given to a VSLA group working with Sucafina Burundi. As the animals continue to produce offspring, each family that receives an animal will give the first offspring to another family and more and more families are able to receive animals and benefit from keeping livestock. VSLA members can decide how they would like to allocate the animals and their offspring.

Contribution options:

In addition to built-in contributions made through coffee purchases, roasters and interested partners can make additional contributions to this project:

• $550 USD for 1 kit to buy and manage 1 goat
• $750 USD for 1 kit to buy and manage 1 pig
• Flexible USD contribution from $550 USD and above.

About Beyond Flagship projects

Beyond Flagship Projects are initiatives linked to IMPACT-verified farmer groups within Sucafina’s direct supply chains. These projects are designed to offer partners a flexible way to support IMPACT goals, create measurable impact and drive meaningful change at contribution levels below the typical minimum threshold for full project sponsorship.

Investments are made through a premium and do not need to be tied directly to coffee produced by the project’s participating farmers. Instead, support is Origin-specific – for example, purchasing Beyond Flagship contributing coffees from Colombia enables investment in Colombia-based IMPACT Beyond projects. This approach increases flexibility, expands the potential for impact at scale and supports more consistent data collection and reporting across supply chains.