Maraba coffee is grown in Maraba, an area of southern Rwanda. Maraba's coffee plants are the Bourbon variety of Coffea arabica (plant pictured), grown on volcanic soils on high-altitude hills. About 500,000 smallholder farmers grow the coffee plants under the cooperative Abahuzamugambi, founded in 1999; the cooperative has been supported by the National University of Rwanda and the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages. The fruit is handpicked, mostly during the rainy season between March and May, and brought to a washing station in Maraba, where the coffee beans are extracted and dried. At several stages, the beans are sorted according to quality. The beans are sold to various roasting companies, including Union Coffee Roasters of the United Kingdom, who produce a Fairtrade-certified brand, and Community Coffee of the United States. Rwanda Smallholder Specialty Coffee Company buys from Maraba and sells to the domestic market. Maraba coffee is also brewed into a beer. ( Full article... )
July 14 : Bastille Day in France (1789); Festino di Santa Rosalia begins in Palermo, Italy
| | Chandrayaan-3 is India's third lunar mission, part of the Chandrayaan programme developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission's spacecraft consists of Vikram, a lunar lander, and Pragyan , a lunar rover. This photograph shows the LVM3-M4 rocket carrying Chandrayaan-3 lifting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on 14 July 2023. Vikram later made a successful soft landing near the lunar south pole in August 2023, making India the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, and the first country to land a lunar spacecraft near the south pole. Photograph credit: ISRO, edited by UnpetitproleX Recently featured: |