TAMSHI PAPEC
Empowering smallholder farmers and promoting environmental conservation
“Before the PAPEC program, I was cultivating vegetables and fruits for sustenance. Now with the PAPEC program, I have been receiving training, support, and supplies which have helped me become more knowledgeable about cacao production in an agro-forestry system. I have now planted 1 hectare of cacao and hope to grow this to 5 hectares to provide a better life for my family. The company is helping us. Nobody else helps our community.”
TAMSHI PAPEC, The Strategic Alliance Program for Cacao Production is a central part of our program of sustainable development with smallholder farmers living in communities around TAMSHI and previously relying solely on sustenance agriculture.
These farmers are eligible after attending and graduating from one of our 13 Field Schools, or Escuala De Campos (“ECAs”).
We empower them by providing the training, tools, and agricultural supplies for the establishment and management of cacao on their own lands, under the watchful eye and technical assistance of our field experts.
The farmers also have the guarantee that we will buy their production at a fair price based on the quality achieved. In return, we help them commercialise and market their cacao to prospective buyers.
We’re working tirelessly to achieve a Fairtrade and sustainability certification for our program, so that when you take a bite from our TAMSHI PAPEC cacao, you know you are experiencing our commitment to a sustainable and equitable cacao production.
As of end 2018, PAPEC has 82 beneficiary families and this is growing rapidly as the early success of the program is creating role models within the communities.
“In the early days, with the small jobs we did, we couldn’t buy a notebook, a pencil, we fell short of money, but now, with the improvement of cacao, I can. My grandchildren are going to inherit my plantation.”
“The knowledge and skills we have learnt are not going to be taken away from us by PAPEC or TAMSHI, because it will be forever staying within us.”
“Now, with this cacao project, we suddenly started to think that we no longer have to sleep on the table or on the floor. Instead we can buy a little mattress”
“Thanks to TAMSHI for the commitment that they have with us, the small farmers, because we have always lived abandoned and nobody has ever supported us”
