Responding to the coffee crisis: a pilot study of farmers’ adaptations in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras

Eakin, Hallie; Tucker, Catherine M.; Castellanos, Edwin

doi:10.1111/j.1475-4959.2006.00195.x

Cited by 123 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Across the three countries, our experts strongly associated higher adaptive capacity with increased access to markets, credit, on-farm labor, investments in soil conservation, secure land tenure, and less dynamic migration. Overall, these characteristics align closely with what we understand from the literature on assets, adaptation, and coping strategies for smallholder coffee and subsistence farmers in this region (Campos et al 2014;Alayon-Gamboa and Ku-Vera 2011;Altieri and Koohafkan 2009;Eakin et al 2006).…”

Section: Factors That Affect the Adaptive Capacity Of Smallholder Farsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Primary data are used to define adaptive capacity within a specific context at the household-or community-scale. Secondary data, which are often government-generated, are used to estimate adaptive capacity locally or at broader scales (from sub-national to regional) (Holt-Gimenez 2002; Eakin et al 2006;Alayon-Gamboa and Ku-Vera 2011;PNUD 2013;Baca et al 2014). These approaches are often limited by data availability, quality, consistency, and reliability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mapping adaptive capacity and smallholder agriculture: applying expert knowledge at the landscape scale

et al. 2016

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The impacts of climate change exacerbate the myriad challenges faced by smallholder farmers in the Tropics. In many of these same regions, there is a lack of current, consistent, and spatially-explicit data, which severely limits the ability to locate smallholder communities, map their adaptive capacity, and target adaptation measures to these communities. To explore the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in three data-poor countries in Central America, we leveraged expert input through in-depth mapping interviews to locate agricultural landscapes, identify smallholder farming systems within them, and characterize different components of farmer adaptive capacity. We also used this input to generate an index of adaptive capacity that allows for comparison across countries and farming systems. Here, we present an overview of the expert method used, followed by an examination of our results, including the intercountry variation in expert knowledge and the characterization of adaptive capacity for both subsistence Climatic Change (2017) The Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science, Conservation International, 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22202, USA and smallholder coffee farmers. While this approach does not replace the need to collect regular and consistent data on farming systems (e.g. agricultural census), our study demonstrates a rapid assessment approach for using expert input to fill key data gaps, enable trans-boundary comparisons, and to facilitate the identification of the most vulnerable smallholder communities for adaptation planning in data-poor environments that are typical of tropical regions. One potential benefit from incorporating this approach is that it facilitates the systematic consideration of fieldbased and regional experience into assessments of adaptive capacity, contributing to the relevance and utility of adaptation plans.

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Section: Factors That Affect the Adaptive Capacity Of Smallholder Farsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping adaptive capacity and smallholder agriculture: applying expert knowledge at the landscape scale

et al. 2016

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“…Eakin et al (2006) estimated through household surveys the effect of coffee prices in Mexican, Guatemalan and Honduran communities. Mohan (2007) estimated the profits and costs of a risk-management mechanisms based on the purchase of "put" type options to mitigate the fluctuation in coffee prices and to guarantee a minimum price for growers.…”

Section: Coffee Prices Volatilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Real Option Analysis applied to the production of Arabica and Robusta Coffee in Ecuador

Jácome

Garrido

2017

Span. j. agric. res.

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The coffee market is distinguished for being volatile and uncertain in terms of domestic and international prices. Arabica and Robusta coffee are produced in 23 provinces of Ecuador. A decade-long decline of coffee production prompted the Ecuadorian government to launch a public program for replanting coffee trees towards the end of 2011. A grower's decision to enter, remain in or exit the coffee sector is based on fluctuating profits from each year's harvest sale. We analyzed the hypothesis whereby the coffee grower's decision to leave the sector is explained by volatile and uncertain prices. This paper aimed to evaluate the coffee sector with an application of Real Option Analysis for the period 2002-2012. We also defined entry (H) and exit (L) prices for Arabica and Robusta coffee for the analyzed period. Our findings revealed high H and L prices encourage growers to leave the sector for the most part of the analyzed period. High H and L prices resulted from high variable cost due to increasing wages for farm workers. The Ecuadorian government is developing a policy to help growers make production more efficient, encouraging them to remain in the sector in the long run.

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“…Por más de una década, los productores de café en el mundo han tenido que adaptarse a la exacerbada volatilidad de los precios internacionales, precipitada, no solo por los eventos climáticos sino también por los cambios en la producción, técnicas de procesamiento y la estructura de los mercados internacionales (Eakin, Tucker y Castellanos, 2003;.…”

Section: El Café De Cj En Centroaméricaunclassified

Comercio justo, producción cafetalera y sociedad civil en Centroamérica

Becker

Celis

2015

Eutopía

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ResumenEl Comercio Justo (CJ) en Centroamérica se ha expandido, en parte, gracias a la labor de un creciente número de organizaciones rurales, principalmente dedicadas al cultivo de café, que han visto en esta iniciativa una opción para mejorar, aunque sea someramente, las condiciones de vida de sus agremiados y sus familias. Este conglomerado de organizaciones nutre y potencia la actividad de la sociedad civil en la región y apoya las tesis de quienes ven en el fortalecimiento del sector organizado de la sociedad, la posibilidad de revertir o aminorar los efectos de problemáticas añejas como la pobreza, la desigualdad y la marginación en que viven amplios sectores de la población. En el presente artículo se afirma que el CJ constituye un proyecto que muestra un potencial importante para mejorar las condiciones de vida de numerosos productores empobrecidos de café, pero se discuten algunas de sus contradicciones y problemas más notorios, expresados con nitidez en su materialización centroamericana, los cuales pueden limitar su capacidad de crecimiento e impacto en los años por venir. Se hace una revisión de la literatura especializada y un balance crítico pero constructivo del CJ en Centroamérica, a través del análisis del trabajo de algunas organizaciones de productores de café en la región.Palabras clave: Comercio Justo, Sociedad Civil, Centroamérica, café. AbstractFair Trade in Central America has grown, in part, as a consequence of the action of a growing amount of rural organizations, mainly focused in coffee production, which saw in this initiative an option to improve the living conditions of its members and families. This group of organizations nourishes and boosts the activity of civil society within the region and supports the hypothesis of people that see in the strengthening of the organized sector of society, the possibility to revert or reduce the effects of old problems such as poverty, inequality or social exclusion in which an important section of the population currently lives. In this article we argue that Fair Trade constitutes a project that shows an important potential to improve the living conditions of numerous poor coffee producers, but it is also important for us to discuss some of its contradictions and most important problems, eloquently materialized in Central America and that could limit its capacity to grow and impact during the forthcoming years. We present a revision of specialized literature and a critical but constructive analysis of Fair Trade in Central America, through the study of the operation of some coffee producers' organizations in the region.

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Responding to the coffee crisis: a pilot study of farmers’ adaptations in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras

Cited by 123 publications

References 25 publications

Mapping adaptive capacity and smallholder agriculture: applying expert knowledge at the landscape scale

Mapping adaptive capacity and smallholder agriculture: applying expert knowledge at the landscape scale

A Real Option Analysis applied to the production of Arabica and Robusta Coffee in Ecuador

Comercio justo, producción cafetalera y sociedad civil en Centroamérica

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