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Author: Christopher M. Bacon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture, Cooperative
Languages : en
Pages : 12
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Book Description
This research brief examines the livelihoods of small-scale coffee growing households in Nicaragua, comparing those that are selling to certified "specialty" coffee markets with those selling to conventional markets. The study uses the Millennium Development Goals as established by the United Nations in 2000 as a framework for analyzing the current status of 177 Nicaraguan households involved in small-scale coffee production. The authors conclude that, despite some recent gains in terms of coffee price increases, small-scale grower, no matter whether they sell to certified or conventional market, are in fact losing economic ground due to declining real prices and the rising costs of sustainable production, a situation that needs to be addressed by the coffee industry, certification groups, producer organizations, and governments.
Author: Christopher M. Bacon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture, Cooperative
Languages : en
Pages : 12
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Book Description
This research brief examines the livelihoods of small-scale coffee growing households in Nicaragua, comparing those that are selling to certified "specialty" coffee markets with those selling to conventional markets. The study uses the Millennium Development Goals as established by the United Nations in 2000 as a framework for analyzing the current status of 177 Nicaraguan households involved in small-scale coffee production. The authors conclude that, despite some recent gains in terms of coffee price increases, small-scale grower, no matter whether they sell to certified or conventional market, are in fact losing economic ground due to declining real prices and the rising costs of sustainable production, a situation that needs to be addressed by the coffee industry, certification groups, producer organizations, and governments.
Author: Sara R. Curran
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317991532
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
Food provides a particularly exciting and grounded research site for understanding the mechanisms governing global transactions in the 21st century. While food is intimately and fundamentally related to ecological and human well-being, food products now travel far flung trade routes to reach us. International trade in food has tripled in value and quadrupled in volume since 1960 and tracing the production, movement, transformation, and consumption of food necessitates research that situates localities within global networks and facilitates our capacity to "see the trees and the forest" by zooming from the global to the local and back to the global. Our need for food is a constant; how we acquire food is a variable; and the production, commercialization, and consumption of food therefore offer an invaluable window onto the globalization of the world we inhabit. Food provides an ideal site for answering the fundamental questions of governance of central concern to globalization debates. This book presents recent and interdisciplinary scholarship about the variety of mechanisms governing global food systems and their impacts on human and environmental well-being This book was previously published as a special issue of Globalizations
Author: Tina Beuchelt
Publisher: Cuvillier Verlag
ISBN: 3736941196
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
Organic and Fairtrade certified coffees have become very popular among socially, environmentally and health conscious consumers in recent years. As consumers pay higher prices for these certified coffees, it is commonly assumed that, compared to conventional coffee, better producer prices are paid and that higher shares of the added value in consuming countries trickle down to the producers. Coffee certifications are thus supposed to benefit the coffee producers. Coffee is an important export good for many developing countries. The majority of global coffee production comes from around 20-25 million smallholder families in developing countries. As individual certifications are too expensive smallholders have to participate in farmer organizations, e.g. cooperatives, in order to access cheaper group certification. Governments and international donors support coffee certification schemes and assume that these link farmers to high-value markets, increase producers’ incomes, change power and information asymmetries in value chains, and contribute to poverty reduction. Yet, there is only weak empirical evidence that justifies this support. There are few quantitative studies which applied random sampling techniques, and analyzed the effects of certification schemes in regard of gross margins, profits, income shares and poverty levels of certified smallholder coffee producers. The role of cooperatives for the success of certification schemes has been neglected by research. The available studies have methodological limitations, for example they are based on qualitative methods only, include no more than one cooperative or one certification standard, or cooperatives are non-randomly sampled. This research seeks to fill the identified knowledge and methodological gaps. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, the production and marketing strategies of small-scale coffee producers in northern Nicaragua are compared based on producers that are organized in conventional, organic, and Organic-Fairtrade certified cooperatives. The analysis addresses (i) the smallholders’ household level and (ii) the organizational and institutional level with regard of the cooperatives and respective coffee value chains. The study aims at, first, identifying the socio-economic costs and benefits of participation in organic and Organic-Fairtrade certified coffee chains with respect to level of coffee and household incomes as well as household poverty. Second, it is examined which role the farmer organizations, their respective business models and upgrading strategies, play for the success or failure of certification schemes. Third, the integration of coffee farmers and their cooperatives into the coffee value chain, the structure and functioning of the value chains and the value adding effect of certification is examined. The survey was conducted in the northern Nicaragua departments Madriz, Nueva Segovia, and Matagalpa on coffee farms situated between 900m and 1300m a.s.l. The coffee of all farmers was classified as ‘Strictly High Grown’; the species is Coffea Arabica. The sample design ensured that the research region was homogeneous with respect to living conditions, socio-economic level, as well as coffee growing characteristics driving performance of coffee farmers. After having randomly selected the cooperatives, 327 coffee producing households were also randomly selected and surveyed with a structured questionnaire. Qualitative data collection consisted in total of 58 key-person interviews, 67 semi-structured farmer interviews and 24 focus group discussions with coffee farmers. The primary data was collected during two research stays in 2007 and 2008. This research analyzes gross margins, accounting and economic profits of coffee production. The household income is measured and a poverty headcount index elaborated. Principal component analysis is used to determine current relative poverty levels and the development of relative poverty over time. A SWOT analysis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of cooperatives. Through a value chain analysis information on the actors, power and information flows as well as price shares is gained. For identifying the farmers’ experiences with coffee certification schemes, a thematic analysis is applied to the qualitative data by developing an individual code system for datareduction. In the research region, the coffee yields of conventional and certified coffee smallholders are usually 40% to 50% lower than national average due to limited maintenance activities and inadequately managed coffee plantations. Highest yields (on average around 480kg/ha) are achieved by organic producers but yield levels vary, like for conventional and Organic-Fairtrade certified producers, between the cooperatives (ranging from 293kg/ha to 516kg/ha). In comparison to conventional prices, Organic-Fairtrade certified coffee achieved on average 11% and organic coffee 8% higher farm-gate prices; price differences between cooperatives also exist. Organic production processes require fewer purchased inputs but are more laborious. Due to constrained availability of family labor, additional labor has to be hired which offsets saved input costs. The higher prices of certified coffees compensate for production costs but fail to increase per hectare gross margins and profits in the case of Organic-Fairtrade farmers compared to conventional produces. Due to higher yield levels, organic producers experience an increase in per hectare gross margins and profits. They have with 328US$/ha a significantly higher economic profit than Organic-Fairtrade farmers (147US$/ha) and conventional farmers (191US$/ha). Yet, as they tend to have smaller coffee areas and larger family sizes, the increase in gross margins does not result in improved per capita net coffee incomes for organic certified producers compared to the other groups. Also Organic-Fairtrade certified producers do not have higher per capita net coffee incomes than conventional producers. Among organic and Organic-Fairtrade certified producers, a higher share of households is grouped below the extreme poverty line than among conventional producers (45% compared to 30%) – which means that they cannot cover their food requirements. Between 60% and 70% of conventional and certified coffee producers are below the national poverty line. Using principal component analysis to investigate several dimensions of poverty and their development over time, it was found that over a period of ten years, organic certified producers became relatively poorer. In the year 1997, all groups had similar relative poverty levels. The Organic-Fairtrade certified producers first improved their relative poverty status during the coffee crisis (in 2002) and were relatively better off than conventional producers. Since then, the relative poverty levels of Organic-Fairtrade producers deteriorated compared to conventional producers. Irrespective of whether farmers were certified or not, Nicaragua’s coffee smallholders face two to three months of food shortages per year during which they seek off-farm employment, and apply for formal and informal credits. In many cases the credit is used for immediate consumption needs, like food or medicine, and only partially invested in the farm. Consequently, harvested yields stay low, leading to low incomes and new credit requirements. When farmers are financially illiterate or requested higher credits than their payment capacity, they are likely to enter a vicious cycle of indebtedness. Each cooperative has a unique business model; they differ, for example, in member size, functions and services, internal organization, and financial characteristics. Despite their different business models the cooperatives often choose the same upgrading strategies as other cooperatives mainly certification, quality, and own processing. The analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOTs) showed that the cooperatives have certain SWOTs in common but there are also cooperative specific SWOTs. The common strength of the cooperatives is the quality potential of the region. The common weaknesses relate to the lack of credit access, a weak extension system, and weak rural infrastructure. The common threats of the cooperatives are high competition among national coffee buyers and cooperatives, corruption and mismanagement, and, according to the qualitative interviews, increasing microclimatic variations and unreliable rainfall patterns. The common opportunities range from more horizontal coordination to reduce transaction costs to share certificates acknowledging the members’ possessions in the cooperative and increased transparency about deductions on payments. Qualitative evaluation indicated no obvious association between the coffee certification strategy of farmers/their cooperative and the coffee gross margins farmers obtained. The upgrading strategies of cooperatives, the strengths and weaknesses as well as the amount of coffee-related services, which the cooperative offers to producers, tend to be more related to coffee gross margins than the organic or Organic-Fairtrade certification. Farmers are found to have no bargaining power over prices irrespective of the value chain, while certified cooperatives have limited bargaining power towards their buyers compared to cooperatives in the conventional chain. Power is unequally distributed between buyers and sellers of coffee in all chains. The quantity and quality of information flows depends on the cooperative and value chain model. Information asymmetries are fewer in certified chains; yet this also depends on the cooperative. Organic-Fairtrade certified value chains tend to have more and smaller-sized actors, especially in consuming countries, compared to the conventional chain. This increases transaction costs in the certified value chains and thus leads to substantially lower producers’ share of the final coffee retail price (8%-15% in certified chains compared to 24%-34% in conventional chains). The presented results depend strongly on each cooperative and there are large variations within the organic and Organic-Fairtrade certified cooperatives. It can be concluded that higher farm-gate coffee prices do not lead necessarily to higher per capita net coffee and household income, as yield levels, production costs, family and land size, as well as labor availability play important roles. Organic or Organic-Fairtrade certification as an upgrading strategy seems only then successful when the business model of a cooperative, its strengths, weaknesses, and other upgrading strategies are supportive. Given the constraints mentioned above, a well functioning cooperative is a necessary but not sufficient condition. This was shown by the example of one well run Organic-Fairtrade certified cooperative with low gross margins showed. The main causes of continuing poverty among smallholder coffee growers in northern Nicaragua seem not the lack of market access or so-called ‘unfair’ trading conditions. Based on the qualitative analysis, reasons for poverty are lack of entrepreneurial and management skills of farmers and cooperative staff, financial illiteracy and indebtedness of farmers as well as a very weak rural infrastructure. Based on the quantitative results potential reasons for poverty are low yield and productivity levels, land and labor constraints. Certification schemes do not address or are able to solve these problems. Prices for certified coffee cannot compensate for low productivity, land or labor constraints. Therefore, certification schemes can only be part of a viable development policy for poor small-scale farmers in northern Nicaragua; the production, infrastructural, organizational and institutional problems mentioned above require even more attention from policy makers. It is recommended that policies, which aim at increasing smallholder coffee incomes through upgrading, should focus apart from production aspects on the institutional context of smallholders and their cooperatives. Regarding coffee production, policies should address coffee yield levels, for example through research investments in improved, stress-tolerant and locally adapted varieties to encounter the microclimatic variations. Coffee quality in the region should be further strengthened by a supportive coffee sector strategy at the national level, which should include a national coffee institute or federation like in Colombia or Costa Rica. This should be accompanied by investments in rural infrastructure. It is recommended to establish an efficient extension system which also addresses the entrepreneurial skills of farmers. This could be also in form of facilitating the establishment of extension associations which could operate regionally and be financed by their members’ contribution. In order to better link farmers to (high-value) markets and to increase their income, it is recommended to focus more on the structure and functioning of producer organizations and their respective value chains. Business and strategic advice to cooperatives is necessary, as cooperative leaders and staff are not fit for international markets, in which they have to act. A banking system which also provides credits to cooperatives (at market interest rates and lending conditions) would reduce the reliance and dependence on exporters or international credit providers and could ease liquidity constraints of cooperatives. An obligatory annual external auditing of cooperatives, like it exists in other countries, is considered to be important to reduce mismanagement of a cooperative. It will also increase the creditworthiness of cooperatives for banks. Trade, processing, and marketing efficiencies in the organic but especially in the Fairtrade value chains in consuming countries need to be improved in the alternative trade sector with its many small profit or non-profit enterprizes and organizations. These actors could consolidate to exert economies of scale and reduce their transaction costs. Consolidation is certainly a new way of thinking in the alternative trade sector but could effectively contribute to improve farmers’ shares of retail prices and raise farm-gate coffee prices.
Author: Sarah Lyon
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1457109514
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279
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Book Description
We are told that simply by sipping our morning cup of organic, fair-trade coffee we are encouraging environmentally friendly agricultural methods, community development, fair prices, and shortened commodity chains. But what is the reality for producers, intermediaries, and consumers? This ethnographic analysis of fair-trade coffee analyzes the collective action and combined efforts of fair-trade network participants to construct a new economic reality. Focusing on La Voz Que Clama en el Desierto-a cooperative in San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala-and its relationships with coffee roasters, importers, and certifiers in the United States, Coffee and Community argues that while fair trade does benefit small coffee-farming communities, it is more flawed than advocates and scholars have acknowledged. However, through detailed ethnographic fieldwork with the farmers and by following the product, fair trade can be understood and modified to be more equitable. This book will be of interest to students and academics in anthropology, ethnology, Latin American studies, and labor studies, as well as economists, social scientists, policy makers, fair-trade advocates, and anyone interested in globalization and the realities of fair trade.
Author: Christopher M. Bacon
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262026333
Category : Coffee industry
Languages : en
Pages : 405
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Book Description
Explores small-scale farming, the political economy of the global coffee industry, & initiatives that claim to promote more sustainable rural development in coffee-producing communities.
Author: Albie F. Miles
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832515460
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
Author: Marcela Vásquez-Léon
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816534748
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265
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Book Description
"Provides a cross-country comparison of smallholder agricultural cooperatives in Paraguay, Brazil and Colombia, revealing immense opportunities and challenges for community development, empowerment, and social change"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Ian Bannon
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821365061
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342
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Book Description
This book is an attempt to bring the gender and development debate full circle-from a much-needed focus on empowering women to a more comprehensive gender framework that considers gender as a system that affects both women and men. The chapters in this book explore definitions of masculinity and male identities in a variety of social contexts, drawing from experiences in Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. It draws on a slowly emerging realization that attaining the vision of gender equality will be difficult, if not impossible, without changing the ways in which masculinities are defined and acted upon. Although changing male gender norms will be a difficult and slow process, we must begin by understanding how versions of masculinities are defined and acted upon.
Author: Jon R. Biemer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538140667
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
"Readers should be inspired, informed, and ready to go." Booklist, Starred Review Offers 175 actions readers can take to create a more sustainable global environment. You care about the environment—the world you live in, and the world you are going to leave behind for future generations. Perhaps you already avoid wasting energy and buying more things than you need – reducing your Ecological Footprint. Yet there is a limit, given your family and circumstances. What can you do that will truly help heal our planet? Our Environmental Handprints is the first book to fully explore your “Handprint” – how you can create sustainability in your life and in the world. Your Handprint is limited only by yourimagination. The good you do can be greater than your Footprint. It is time to put more energy into your Handprint! The smart beauty of the Handprint is that it can be self-perpetuating. Take planting a tree as an example. You put a seedling into the ground, water it, and then leave it alone. That tree will then grow itself and pull carbon dioxide from the air and create oxygen for us to breathe for as long as it lives. And, seeds from that tree create more trees. Here, Jon Biemer draws our attention to proven strategies across the spectrum. We make a difference with the choices we make about the clothing we buy, the investments we make, and even the food we choose to eat. Handprint Thinking applies to shelter (eco-remodeling and LEED buildings), motion (electric cars and living without a car), and earth-friendly energy. He provides 175 proven Handprint suggestions that will help readers align their interests, lifestyle, and motivations toward a more sustainable earth.
Author: Johnston Birchall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cooperation
Languages : en
Pages : 90
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Book Description
