Coffee farmers' incentives to comply with sustainability standards

Abstract

PurposeThis paper investigates the incentives to coffee farmers to participate in certification schemes that require improved agricultural practices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors ran a choice experiment among 250 Brazilian coffee farmers in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that both cash and non-cash payments are likely to incentive farmers' participation in a certification scheme. Besides price premium, incentives as long-term contracts and provision of technical would encourage producers to adopt eco-certification schemes. Our results also suggest that non-cash payments may be appropriate substitutes to a price premium to some extent.Research limitations/implicationsThe large coffee producers are over-represented in our sample compared to the population of Brazilian coffee farms. However, it seems reasonable to focus on these producers, as they are usually the ones who individually adopt strategies, since small farmers are induced by collective strategies (e.g. cooperatives).Social implicationsThe result regarding technical assistance makes sense given that Brazilian farmers generally have poor access to rural extension services.Originality/valueWe contributed in the literature about adoption of sustainable agriculture practices analyzing the requirements and motivations for farmer participation in certification schemes. We also contribute private and public strategies to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices.

Exploring heterogeneity in shrimp farmers` preferences for the contracts of producing certified organic shrimp

“…Premium: The coefficient of Premium is positive, indicating that the contracts with a higher premium increase farmers' utility and the probability of choosing a contract. This result supports the findings of previous researches (Gelaw et al, 2016;Lemeilleur et al, 2020;Ochieng et al, 2017;Schipmann and Qaim, 2011;Van den Broeck et al, 2017).…”

“…Price premium: This is an important factor that affects farmers' utility when they consider choosing a contract. Farmers prefer contract schemes that offer a higher selling price or price premium (Gelaw et al, 2016;Lemeilleur et al, 2020;Ochieng et al, 2017;Schipmann and Qaim, 2011;Van den Broeck et al, 2017). In our case study, if signing a contract to produce certified organic shrimp, farmers have to comply with the standards of producing organic products.…”

“…Recently, to support policy-makers to build good contract from the farmers' point of view, choice experiment (CE) method has been used to explore farmers' preferences for the contracts (Abebe et al, 2013;Blandon et al, 2009;Broch et al, 2013;Christensen et al, 2011;Espinosa-Goded et al, 2010;Gelaw et al, 2016;Lemeilleur et al, 2020;Ochieng et al, 2017;Schipmann and Qaim, 2011;Van den Broeck et al, 2017;Vassalos et al, 2016;Villanueva et al, 2017). However, there are limited studies research on the contract focusing on sustainable certification.…”

“…However, there are limited studies research on the contract focusing on sustainable certification. To our knowledge, the are two studies applied CE to explore farmers' preferences for fair-trade contracting in Benin ( Van den Broeck et al, 2017) and eco-certified contract for coffee products in Brazil (Lemeilleur et al, 2020). Moreover, no study applied CE to analyse farmers' preferences for contracts of producing quality and environmentally friendly products in the field of aquaculture.…”

The impact of locus of control and motivations in predicting entrepreneurial intentions among farmers: a field research

“…Blasco et al (2018) refer to the degree to which a person has a positive or negative perception of developing an entrepreneurial career. Entrepreneurial motivations usually focus on key economic and social characteristics (Karagiannis et al, 2001;Korres, 2015;Lemeilleur et al, 2020).…”