CLIMATE CHANGE 

This research article investigates the changes in women’s role producing coffee when affiliating to fairtrade-organic certifications. The authors focus on four research questions: how widespread is increased women’s participation in fairtrade–organic? What conditions contribute to and support increased women’s participation? And how does increased participation affect a history of women’s (relative) exclusion from producer organizations in Mesoamerica? Based on their assessment, the answers to these questions are not very straightforward. On the one hand, findings show that women in the fairtrade-organic network can access benefits mostly when registered as farm operators. On the other hand, due to the decrease in premiums and the general crisis connected with coffee prices, it may also lead them to take up lower-paying and labour-intensive practices as men move to more remunerative options, sometimes such as migration. This source is particularly interesting for coffee professionals looking at gender perspectives in coffee production practices.

Summary:

The paper examines the revenue effects of certified organic contract farming for smallholders and of adoption of organic agricultural farming methods in a tropical African context. The comparison in both cases is with farming systems that are “organic by default.” Survey data from a large organic coffee contract farming scheme in Uganda are reported and analyzed using a standard OLS regression and a full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimate of the Heckman selection model. The analysis finds that, controlling for a range of factors, there are positive revenue effects both from participation in the scheme and, more modestly, from applying organic farming techniques.

This article applies value-chain analysis to an agricultural ‘commodity’, which is in the process of significant change in final product markets. By focusing on the capacity of value-chain analysis to map input-output relations, and by identifying power asymmetries along the chain, it is possible to analyse the factors explaining inter-country distributional outcomes in this sector. A major conclusion is that we are witnessing a simultaneous process of power concentration in importing countries and power deconcentration in producing countries. It is hypothesised that similar trends can be observed in other agricultural-based value chains.

this document provides a set of principles and practices for sustainable green coffee production for the mainstream market in all regions of the world. It is meant to be revised regularly on the basis of practical experience. Furthermore, it is meant to be completed with specific guidelines and practical tools based on local innovations and adapted to local prevailing conditions (according to the region and its climates, ecological variables, farming systems, cultures etc) as well as respecting national laws and regulations.

This article engages various critiques of Fair Trade, from its participation in commodification to providing a cover for "Fair-washing" corporations, and argues that Fair Trade has the potential to answer the challenges contained within them if and when it initiates an ongoing process of developing the "ethical valued-added" content of the label.

En años recientes, las alianzas intersectoriales para el desarrollo sostenido han estado a la vanguardia de muchas cadenas de materias primas básicas. Tomando la cadena del café como ejemplo, se explora el papel de estas alianzas, con la ayuda del Análisis de la Cadena Global de Materias Primas Básicas y la Teoría de Convención. Mediante estándares de producción, las alianzas tienen capacidad para influir sobre los retos de sostenibilidad en relación con la producción. No obstante, estas alianzas muestran un desequilibrio en la participación de sus actores, compiten unas con otras y principalmente crean una producción paralela que se integra en la cadena convencional. Si bien son importantes pioneras del cambio, las alianzas no cuentan con capacidad para convertir la cadena de café en una cadena sostenible

This report presents the introduction of three technological innovations in the Montes de Oro Cooperative in Costa Rica able to diminish the environmental cost of coffee production. To reduce the energy consumption of coffee drying, the cooperative has invested in a hybrid machine that uses a combination of solar thermal and biomass gasification to dry the beans. Results show that this system minimises considerably the use of water and energy during the process compared to a more conventional drying system. However, it is important to take into consideration the initial economic investment of the machine, that is repaid only after 6 to 7 years. Another innovation has been implemented for coffee processing. Instead of adopting a conventional washed system, the cooperative invested in a semi-washed process, reducing water consumption by 90% and using coffee waster for the production of biogas. To preserve biodiversity, the cooperative has also applied called integrated open canopy, where coffee plants are planted with various amounts of shades. Results showed a considerable conservation of forest-associated species compared to more conventional systems. This piece is interested for farm managers willing to invest in new technologies solutions to decrease the environmental costs.

This journal article expresses the complexity of guaranteeing the single-origin protection standards to high quality coffees around the world. The author puts this into the economic contest of commercial versus high-quality coffee, highlighting the big difference in pricing for those coffee sold through the conventional market and the ones as single-origin. Schussler then presents the trade market rules and standards of different consuming area; the USA, the European Union and Japan, depicting the challenges for obtaining geographical indications and trademarks. Secondly, it presents two case studies, Colombia and Ethiopia. These two countries have undergone two very different paths to obtain the international acknowledgment of their single-origin trademark. Finally, the author tries to assess which of these two processes has been more effective to provide farmers with higher prices. However, conclusion shows that in most cases neither the geographic indication nor trademarks are able to provide farmers with higher margins. This article is particularly interesting for those experts looking at the politics and economics of single-origin coffee.

As a consequence of several developments in the coffee market, the coffee price has decreased significantly in the last decades. Combined with the overall poor economic and institutional environment of coffee farmers in developing countries, this has resulted in a decrease in the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the livelihoods of small scale coffee farmers in many parts of the world. Within this context, and within the context of Corporate Social Responsibility of large multinationals in the coffee sector, a support project was initiated in the Ubiriki valley of Peru in March 2003, sponsored by Sara Lee and managed by the DE Foundation through Plant Research International Wageningen. The broad scope of the project already becomes apparent of the activities analysed in this study, being the Farmer Field Schools in which farmers receive capacity building, the establishment of a producer cooperative and the certification of coffee. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the role of these types of projects in poverty alleviation by performing a quantitative impact study of the DE Foundation Coffee Project in Peru. The main research question of this study is "what has been the socioeconomic impact of the DE Foundation Coffee Project on the livelihoods of the households in the Ubiriki valley?"

The growing economic value and consumer popularity of sustainability standards inevitably raise questions about the extent to which their structure and dynamics actually address many environmental, economic and public welfare issues. The COSA (Committee on Sustainability Assessment) project emerged from the concerns of many industry practitioners and the two dozen institutions collectively organized as the Sustainable Coffee Partnership (see Acknowledgements) about the lack of knowledge and dearth of sound scientific inquiry on what actually happens in the process of adopting sustainability initiatives.1 The committee set out to develop a scientifically-credible framework with which to examine and measure the various types of costs and benefits associated with different sustainability approaches. The COSA method is an innovative farm management tool because it incorporates not only economic methods, but also environmental and social metrics to offer a multi-faceted view of sustainability that reflects the intentions and results of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development

In this article written by Jeff Neilson, the structures and institutions of the Indonesian coffee value chain are presented under the lens of ethical and environmental global private standards. In fact, according to the author, these standards are affecting the smallholder coffee system in Indonesia. This phenomenon is developing an increased penetration of multinational companies in the country with a different relationship between traders and farmers. The article explains how predominant the role of multinational NGO’s has been in the new rise of demand for sustainably produced coffees. Therefore, the requirement that these big companies have in terms of traceability and compliance to the certification’s schemes can take a toll on the producers, which might see their cost increase without a real benefit in terms of price. The article continues by explaining the history and the rationale behind the certification standards, and a discussion of the key concepts of corporate self-regulation. The Indonesian coffee industry is also presented, with the description of the main actors, so to pave the ground for the analysis of the key findings. This article is of interest to anyone who wants to know more about certification schemes and about the Indonesian coffee context.

Coffee is one of the most important agricultural export commodities in the world and it represents the main export from some developing countries. Therefore, the development of new methods of coffee management that improves production without causing any damage to the environment is an attractive alternative for producers. Much effort has been invested towards understanding the mode of action of compounds that can induce resistance against several pathogens without injuring the environment. Many researches have considered silicon efficient in avoiding plant pathogen penetration and development. Our aim was to verify the effect of potassium silicate and calcium/magnesium silicate in the development of coffee seedlings (Coffea arabica cv. Mundo Novo) as well as to evaluate the incidence of coffee leaf rust development under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was a completely randomized design with 12 treatments with 10 plants per treatment. The treatments were 0, 0.25, 1.25, 2.5, 4 and 5??m of Si for each source of silicon incorporated into the soil. The seedlings were inoculated with a urediniospores suspension of Hemileia vastatrix (2?mg/ml) at the seventh month after planting (six pair of leaves). Evaluations were performed by counting the number of lesions per leaf. The statistical analysis showed that the number of lesions reduced by up to 66% at the highest silicon dose when compared to the number of lesions in control plants. Infected plants were found to have a linear decrease of lesions with the increase of silicate concentration. The lowest number of lesions per leaf area was observed in plants that received 5??m of Si from potassium silicate. This result indicates the use of silicon as an alternative for an ecological management system for coffee disease protection.

This article presents an impact assessment framework that allows for the evaluation of positive and negative local-level impacts that have resulted from “responsible trade” interventions such as fair trade and ethical trade. The framework investigates impact relating to (1) livelihood impacts on primary stakeholders; (2) socio-economic impacts on communities; (3) organizational impacts; (4) environmental impacts; (5) policies and institutional impacts; and (6) future prospects. It identifies relevant local-level stakeholders and facilitates the analysis of conflicting interests. The framework was developed in the context of, and is applied in this article to, the fair trade coffee industry in northern Nicaragua. It was designed, however, so that it can be applied across commodity sectors and responsible trade initiatives. It is able to do this by accommodating for differences in the social, environmental, political and institutional contexts of different areas, and by taking into account the distinct nature of an initiative’s overall objectives, different levels of intervention, and the full range of stakeholders involved.

In recent years intersectoral partnerships for sustainable development have been on the rise in many global commodity chains. Taking the coffee chain as an example, we explore the role of partnerships with the help of Global Commodity Chain analysis and Convention Theory. By means of production standards, partnerships are able to influence sustainability challenges at the production level. However, these partnerships show an imbalance in actor involvement, compete with each other and mainly create a parallel production integrated into the conventional chain. While being important initiators of change, partnerships are unable to turn the coffee chain into a sustainable chain.

Handout on basic coffee wastewater characteristics and treatment.