Manel Modelo

Manel is tackling rural decline by shifting the coffee market's predatory relationships with small producers towards supportive interactions that value and empower people. His work fostering youth agency and facilitating access to training, financing, and markets enables sustainable livelihoods for the whole community.

Initiatives aiming to reduce poverty in rural territories tend to focus only on financial and or technical interventions. Manel understands that these alone do not regulate power structures within the system. Thus he strives to build a decentralized network where youth take the lead to build producers' capacity and foster economic opportunities in their communities. To achieve this, Manel first works closely with the people at an individual level, not just sharing technical knowledge to upgrade the coffee quality and yield (then increasing income), but mainly creating a learning community that fosters belonging, agency, and leadership.

Each young leader is encouraged to form a "cell" or group of local producers, with whom they share their peer-learning and lead commercialization, plan access to credit, control savings and organize certifications. Since cells (unlike cooperatives) have a limit on membership and enforce collective accountability for credit repayment, they are an effective alternative governance model for small farmers. Although the well-established cooperative movement has enabled significant gains for producers in Latin America, the model's emphasis on volume has created incentives for many cooperatives to focus on growing their supplier base rather than strengthening members' capacity. In Mexico, these organizations have also become mired in corruption, better known for profiteering and political power than for improving livelihoods. Only cooperative leaders have benefitted while harvesters continue to struggle to make ends meet. Instead, in Manel's model, obtaining a good price depends on the quality and efforts of the increasing production achieved by each member. This becomes a powerful incentive for producers to invest in their skills and in their coffee plantations.

Manel has developed a comprehensive support infrastructure so that, aside from training and technical assistance, producers can access credit that is personalized to their individual needs as well as connect with markets that offer higher prices. The model has the potential to be replicated at a national scale or beyond, as it can be applied to other coffee producers in different locations in Mexico, as well as for other commercial crops. Manel is focusing on demonstrating that the model works and systematizing it so that it can be transferred to other organizations and actors, including cooperatives that seek to recover a focus on farmer welfare. Some methodologies and best practices are already being shared in sector-wide spaces and networks to encourage independent replication, and the Sinapsis team offers guidance during the adoption process.

Small agricultural producers play a critical role in propping up the rural economy and in preserving biodiversity and food security. Most farmers in Mexico (68%) and worldwide (72%) work on 5 hectares of land or less. Yet three quarters of all farmers worldwide are unable to break the cycle of poverty. Rural poverty is highly correlated with social problems such as organized crime, the disintegration of social fabric in rural communities, and migration.

Low productivity is one of the key barriers facing smallholder farmers due to lack of financing, access to technology, and inputs. In Mexico, government programs are designed for large farmers or are clientelistic in nature. Little is invested in market access for smallholder farmers, targeted technical assistance, or in the disruptive use of new technologies to improve farm production or management. Additionally, agricultural value chains are opaque and do not provide smallholder farmers with the information or tools to make better production and market decisions. Alongside affecting their yields, insufficient economic resources and training mean that producers cannot add value to their products to sell at higher prices.

Financial instability is especially acute in the coffee sector, as prices are highly volatile due to speculation. Without savings nor access to credit, small producers lack the financial security needed to withstand these fluctuations and end up selling coffee for below-market prices. The urgent need for immediate liquidity forces them to sell at any price, even if it does not reflect the true cost of production nor their household's livelihood. Isolation adds to this challenge, as producers are cut off from communication routes and have few alternatives to find a market for their coffee. They rely on predatory intermediaries (called "coyotes") to be linked with supply chains, which often results in unfair and cheaper prices.

Economic challenges also limit rural communities' capacity to mitigate the mounting impacts of climate change and environmental stresses: an estimated 40-70% of agricultural lands in Mexico are projected to decline in suitability for farming by 2030, due to the impacts of climate change such as droughts, floods, and increasing temperatures.

Cooperatives initially offered a solution to these issues, as they provided a structure for greater market access and increased producers' bargaining power. However, their promise of improved livelihoods has failed to materialize for most small producers in Mexico, as they increasingly focused on profit over producers' wellbeing. Cooperatives opt for growing the number of suppliers to maximize volume while buying cheaply, rather than supporting producers to improve yields and quality to increase their selling prize—costs and risks are effectively outsourced to the lowest link in the chain. Corruption has further eroded trust in cooperatives in the country. These organizations have become co-opted by politicians who use subsidies to buy votes, leading to a proliferation of empty shells that only serve to enrich their leaders with public funds.

Further, cooperatives in Mexico have become a gerontocracy, as elder (largely male) landowners hold on to leadership positions and wield political influence in their communities. This concentration of power puts the sector at risk by pushing youth to migrate in search of better professional opportunities, exacerbating a rural exodus already spurred by the lack of economic prospects. In this daunting context, disappointment and low self and community esteem have broken the ability to develop collective solutions.

The Sinapsis model seeks to empower small coffee producers and their families through various training and support programs. It articulates a virtuous circle of development for organized small producers to improve their productivity, profitability and coffee quality, and for their cooperatives to operate as sustainable enterprises that serve their communities. Manel's vision is to enable small producers to improve their livelihoods and to cultivate new generations of leaders to prevent the abandonment of rural communities.

To achieve his vision, Manel has integrated several programs for the upskilling and strengthening of small coffee producers and their families, focused on agricultural best practices, market access, financial sustainability, and talent development. This support is implemented through three independent but linked organizations: Impacto Café, an NGO which implements new governance and collaboration models, provides training and technical assistance, and fosters youth leadership and entrepreneurship; Impacto Transformador, a for-profit subsidiary that enables market access through certification, quality control, and distribution; and FondoMás, which provides financial services (credit and savings).

The bedrock of the model is the program Liderazgo de Servicio (leadership for service), a 9-day bootcamp where rural youth cultivate leadership, soft skills, and technical knowledge related to the coffee sector. These young leaders are encouraged to become the heads of "cells", groups of 15-25 smallholder producers who join by referral. They replicate the upskilling with the producers in their group and are responsible for information management, both for certifications and for monitoring the progress of the individual harvest plan or for credit applications, for example.

Guided by Impacto Café, cell leaders support producers to raise their income by increasing productivity and quality. A key focus is implementing agricultural best practices aimed at supporting sustainable production and strengthening resilience to climate change. Technical assistance has also optimized storage and crop maintenance to upgrade quality, while greater financial literacy helps producers boost their profits by improving management. Additionally, Manel has partnered with Nuup (led by Ashoka Fellow Vincent Lagacé) to introduce digital solutions that allow both farmers and Sinapsis to make more strategic decisions. Cell leaders are currently piloting a tool to collect data on productivity, quality, ROI, household income, and other key indicators that provide a more detailed view of farmers' progress. Meanwhile, the aggregated data enables Manel and his team to measure their impact and adjust quickly. Thanks to these changes, farmers have nearly doubled their yields.

Cells are interconnected with each other through their young leaders, and together these building blocks form a network and regional sub-networks that foster knowledge sharing. Impacto Café convenes all leaders periodically to plan the harvest, manage credits and certifications, and provide ongoing capacity-building. This model seeks to provide an alternative governance structure that flips generational power dynamics, democratizes decision-making, and centers impact on building producers' capacity and community wellbeing, while enabling economies of scale and bargaining power like traditional cooperatives. Advanced cells or clusters of cells can decide to become formalized as social enterprises through El Vivero, an incubator run by Impacto Café, or register as independent cooperatives. El Vivero supports them to improve organizational, business, and financial management. Acknowledging the benefits of cooperatives, Manel does not seek to entirely replace them; rather, he envisions that established cooperatives can learn best practices from Sinapsis to enhance their impact on producers’ livelihoods. Moreover, cell members' increased bargaining power is a safeguard that can compell cooperatives to adjust their practices.

After three years of testing the organizational model, Manel realized that market access was still a critical barrier. He created Impacto Transformador as a commercial arm that inserts small producers into national and transnational value chains, becoming the first B-Corp certified enterprise in South Eastern Mexico. The company helps producers maximize their prices through quality assurance and certification, as Impacto Transformador absorbs the initial cost of social and environmental certifications like Fair Trade and Organic while Impacto Café supports with compliance. These certifications facilitate access to higher-value markets and ensure a minimum price above market levels. Having a separate entity also allows Manel to influence cooperatives and other producer organizations: by joining Impacto Transformador as commercial partners, they commit to sharing Impacto Café’s support programs with their members. In this way, existing producer organizations are recovering their social benefits and replacing transactional relationships. Finally, Impacto Transformador provides a funding stream for Impacto Café.

Improved financial planning and management coupled with greater market access went some way toward raising producers' livelihoods. Farmers had savings for the first time, they could sell at higher prices, and they were able to make better business decisions. Yet they were still hampered by a lack of appropriate financial services. Therefore, Manel set up FondoMás to provide savings schemes and low-interest credit (4% vs. the usual 8%) financed mainly through those savings and revenue from Impacto Café. Producers can apply for FondoMás credit individually and pay Impacto Transformador with coffee; however, repayment follows the Grameen model of collective accountability to reinforce cells. Accessing credit enables farmers to hold out for higher prices instead of being forced to sell to predatory coyotes and buyers, and they can investment in pre-harvest inputs and maintenance to raise quality and productivity. Additionally, entrepreneurial young leaders and producers can apply for seed funding for new ventures, which stimulates innovation and creates new sources of employment in their communities. All credits are accompanied by a training and a follow-up support plan that is implemented through Impacto Café.

After 10 years of building the model, more than 10,000 coffee producers across 31 communities in Chiapas have been positively impacted. Nearly 8,500 hectares of coffee have been certified for fair-trade and organic export. And $6.5 M USD in low-interest credit has been distributed among smallholder farmers, for whom it was the first credit ever received. Focusing on one of Impacto Cafe´s main programs “Liderazgo de servicio”, 150 young people in two cohorts have been trained, and many of them continued their journey either in leading large cooperatives, starting their own projects, joining Sinapsis' team or obtaining jobs at higher levels of the value chain. Sinapsis' network has 25 cells currently active with +400 members, who have generated $235K USD in savings. Through “Impacto Transformador”, more than 2,000 individual producers and 12 partner cooperatives have benefitted from greater market access through certifications and coffee quality improvement.

While the Sinapsis ecosystem has become a valuable source of support for small coffee farmers, once the governance structures are in place they are able to function independently. For example, cells can sell directly to other commercial entities or even set up their own enterprise by joining forces with other cells. Manel's vision is to influence the agri-food sector to mainstream Sinapsis' approach, centering rural communities' wellbeing alongside economic value and emphasizing long-term, collaborative relationships. The organization has faced threats by traditional rural leaders who see their power threatened—a sign that a cultural shift is underway. Nevertheless, Sinapsis has proved resilient, thanks to deep community ownership and buy-in. There are other signs as well: a major national bank recently backed FondoMás, showing that there is confidence in the model and setting a foundation for replication. Traditional cooperatives are partnering with Sinapsis as they recognize the benefits for their members. Organizations working with cacao and honey producers have also approached Manel to adapt some elements of his model to other sectors. At this stage, Manel is ready to scale the project nationally and regionally. The next challenge is to increase the leadership of women alongside youth.

Manel's journey in social entrepreneurship began in his youth growing up in Spain. He was a leader in his church's youth group, and in his first job in a bank he ran a summer camp for coworkers' children. But his commitment became serious after a trip to Brazil with his youth group in the early 90s, where he took a deep dive into social problems facing communities in favelas, farmers, miners, indigenous peoples, among other eye-opening experiences. Upon returning to Spain, he co-founded an NGO in his town to connect volunteers with institutions and became deeply engaged in social movements.

Through that work, he came across the emerging concept of fair-trade and it immediately resonated with him. He was frustrated with traditional charity models and government aid and was excited by the possibilities raised by harnessing the power of consumers to raise standards of living for producers. He launched a campaign to promote fair trade in his community. Yet after someone asked about the realities of small producers, Manel realized that he needed to move from theory to practice. And so, he left banking and he adventured as a volunteer to Guatemala to develop youth educational programs in rural communities. A couple of months turned into decades: he became one of the early promoters of the cooperative movement, and travelled across Latin America to spread this model with coffee growers, eventually finding his way to Mexico.

After a long and outstanding career in the sector, Manel's next turning point came after a plague killed 70% of coffee crops in Mexico in 2012, sinking producers into a crisis. He was once again frustrated by the inadequacy of responses. The government donated resilient plants to aid recovery, yet these were of lower quality and producers did not have the information needed to adapt to the new varieties nor the financing and skills to generate good yields. Meanwhile, Manel had become disillusioned by cooperativism, which he believed had lost its social focus. He decided to launch Impacto Café to develop alternative governance models and methods to open access to financing and training, also drawing on his experience in youth education to address the issue of generational change. To ensure local buy-in, he partnered with a local Indigenous leader who spearheaded the cooperativist movement in Chiapas.