Since coffee came to Nicaragua in the mid 1800s, it has played a significant role in Nicaragua’s economy and environment. Coffee has been an engine for Nicaragua’s national economic development process. It is among the nation’s primary sources of foreign exchange and provides the economic backbone for thousands of rural communities. More than 40,000 coffee farm families cultivate this golden bean often in a way that preserves Nicaragua’s precious forests and threatened biodiversity. In the late 1990s, coffee annually contributed US$140 million to the national economy and provided the equivalent of 280,000 permanent agricultural jobs.

Nicaragua’s history is punctuated by stories of conquest, resistance, revolution, disaster, recovery and above all humor, grace and struggle. Diverse native peoples including the chortegas and nahuas in the Pacific region and the sumos, mískitos and ramas on the Atlantic Caribbean costal region have accumulated more than 10,000 years of history prior to Columbus’s landing on the Gracias a Dios (Thanks be to God) peninsula in 1492. By 1524, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba had led the conquest through the Pacific planes and founded the cities of Leon and Granada2. Following generations of indigenous resistance and negotiations with Spanish conquistadors, intermarrying led to a rapidly expanding mestizo population in the Pacific Region.

In contrast, the Atlantic Coast was never colonized although at different times it served as a landing place for British pirates and Africans who escaped from the slave trade. The ramas, mískitos and sumos now live with Pacific Coast mistizos making the Atlantic Coast an intense multi-cultural collage, where people continue speaking English, Spanish, Mayagna and Mosquito. Rich in natural resources and culture, this region has both supported Nicaragua as a nation and struggled for more autonomy since its incorporation into the country under the leadership of President José Santos Zelaya.

Nicaragua has three primary geographic regions: the Pacific plains, central northern mountains and the Atlantic coastal lowlands. Rains are relatively infrequent in Nicaragua’s drier Pacific northwest region and almost continuous in the coastal lowlands. For most of the rest of the country, the rainy season begins in May and ends sometime in December. Coffee cherries are generally harvested from October through February.

Nicaragua’s first coffee cherries were planted on the Pacific’s plain mesa, however most production comes from three regions within Nicaragua’s Central northern mountains. These regions include the Segovias (Estelí, Madriz and Nueva Segovia) known for their floral aromas, distinctive flavor and bright acidity. The Matagalpa and Jinotega regions are also favourable for coffee cultivation, especially in the Isabelia and Dariense mountain ranges. These areas possess rich volcanic soils, a humid tropical forest climate, and lush vegetation, including a great variety of lichens, moss, ferns, and orchids. The outer regions of Matagalpa County border the BOSAWAS Natural Reserve, the largest land preservation initiative in Central America. Matagalpa is generally mountainous, with altitudes ranging from 600 to 1500 meters.

Today coffee also supports the 45,334 families that own and operate small farms. These are important contributions in a country of six million with close to a 50% unemployment rate. Ninety five percent of Nicaragua’s coffee cultivation is considered “shade grown”. Farmers cultivate shade coffee under the canopy of native and exotic trees. These trees and the farmers’ management practices help sustain ecosystem services such as biodiversity, soil, and water conservation. As Nicaragua’s environment suffers high rates of deforestation, soil erosion and water contamination, the 108,000 hectares of coffee land become increasingly important for their production of environmental services.

Different farmers produce coffee in different ways, under different agroecological conditions and in a variety of positions vis-à-vis the commercialization chains that bring the coffee from crop to cup. In general, farm size has a direct relationship with the different forms of coffee production and commercialization. Medium, large and the agro industrial plantations maintain a permanent labor force. Most large-scale and the agro industrial plantations have integrated processing facilities on the farm, occasionally exporting their own coffee. These farms usually provide living quarters and food to farm worker families. Rural landless workers continue to live in extreme poverty. During the coffee harvest the large plantations employ and house hundreds, sometimes thousands of coffee pickers.

An estimated 95% of Nicaragua’s coffee farmers are micro and small-scale producers. The family is the primary source of labor on these farms. These households often produce corn and beans, and/or work off the farm. In contrast to the micro-producers, the small-scale farmers generally employ day laborers during the coffee harvest. Most Nicaraguan small-scale farmers grow more than half of the food they eat. These farmers intercrop bananas, oranges, mangos, and trees for firewood and construction within their coffee parcels.  For more info go to http://www.equalexchange.coop/history-of-coffee-in-nicaragua