Doctoral Dissertation Research: Coffee Farming, Drought, and the Effects of Eco-Certification on Farmer Resilience

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This doctoral dissertation research project will analyze how governance structures, such as eco-certification programs and cooperatives, impact coffee farmers' responses to environmental stress. Coffee farming currently supports the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. Yet, the crop is very sensitive to temperature and precipitation conditions. As changes in both precipitation and temperature regimes are projected to alter the suitable coffee-producing regions in the world, eco-certification programs have been expanding their reach among producers and consumers alike. Despite suggestions from eco-certification programs that they can enhance farmer resilience to shocks, little is known about the actual interaction between eco-certification and farmer resilience. A recent severe drought in a major coffee producing region affected both certified and non-certified farmers and offers an opportunity to investigate if and how eco-certification may mitigate the experience of severe environmental stress among coffee farmers. This project will evaluate how certification programs are achieving their objectives of enhancing farmer resilience, which can help inform American consumers on the value of certified products. Additionally, the research aims to assist members of local coffee cooperatives to identify best practices for developing resilience. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this research will provide support to enable a student to establish a research career. This study seeks to characterize how participation in eco-certification programs may influence farmer outcomes during periods of environmental stress, while taking into consideration choices and constraints among production practices, farmer profiles, and geographic variation. The doctoral student will focus her dissertation project on a better understanding of (1) the processes that lead to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices; (2) the sufficiency of those practices to positively impact farmer livelihoods during drought conditions; and (3) the development of a profile of who adopts climate-smart agricultural practices. The student will evaluate records on the quality of coffee produced over an eight-year period, and how quality relates to participation in certification programs over time. The student will also conduct and then analyze semi-structured interviews with farmers on their perceptions of how environmental risk, certification, and varying management practices influence their production systems. Lastly, the student will evaluate the changing incentives for farmers to participate in certification programs and cooperatives in the study region, and assess how these factors influence farm management practices. This study will address these questions by investigating a case study in Brazil, the largest supplier of coffee globally, and one of the leading sources of U.S. coffee imports, but the project's findings will be applicable to other regions and commodities.