Often the whole family is involved in picking coffee. The little ones play a little, pick a little coffee, and maybe have a nap. Parent feel safer when the family is together.
Coffee berries don't always ripen at the same time. When they do, they are easier to pick. Often coffee bushes are picked three times, two or three weeks apart, to get the ripe berries
On the coffee plantations, tractors bring the pickers to the weighing station, beside the coffee processing plant.
Most coffee pickers on the plantation are women, youths and children. The men are working elsewhere.
This lady is carrying the sack of coffee to be weighed, and managing it with her baby on her back.
Most young teenagers earn money for their family by helping with the coffee harvest
After the coffee is weighed, the sacks are emptied into a machine. The plantations pay pickers by the weight that they have picked.
The de-shelling and grading machine uses water and a fascinating system of belts, pulleys and cogs. Coffee is de-shelled, and the beans are automatically divided, ranging from from export quality to rubbish
The deshelling machine sends the husks to this great mound. The husks are used later as fertilizer, or burnt to provide heat for a huge drier, used if there is not much sun.
People who have coffee can also sell it to roadside buyers. It's a cash on the spot transaction, which can be a problem as people can sell coffee which is not theirs.