Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Shade-Grown Coffee Helps Ecosystems and Farmers
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/03/12/shade-grown-coffee-sustainable/Shade-Grown Coffee Helps Ecosystems and Farmers
by International Research Institute for Climate and Society|March 12, 2019
By Jacquelyn Turner
Coffee has huge importance to many smallholder farmers around the world. The success of a year’s coffee crop can mean the difference between having enough cash in-hand for buying food and watching your household go hungry. For many, it is the crucial component of their food security, despite coffee not being an edible crop.
Ecological Economics
As is true for many agricultural products, the process for growing coffee is complex. Frequently, this process is presented as having trade-offs. Increased use of fertilizer and pesticides will likely lead to higher crop yields, but at significant cost to wildlife populations and human health. Using fewer agrochemicals is more environmentally friendly but requires farmers to face increased risks of losing crops to pests and disease. A recent paper led by researcher Juan Nicolás Hernandez-Aguilera, a postdoctoral scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, suggests this trade-off may not be as straightforward as previously thought, and that farmers could be better off financially if they used shade-growing practices for part of their production.
Usually, coffee is grown in homogenous fields of trees in full sun. Hernandez-Aguilera and his coauthors, who are from Cornell University, examined the merits of an alternative method of growing coffee in the understory of shade-bearing trees. Shade-grown production systems mimic a forest structure and provide better habitats for birds than do full-sun systems. Both the birds and the shade trees provide ecosystem services to the coffee plantations, and these services can replace fertilizer and pesticides and save the farmer money. More birds means more predators of insect pests that can jeopardize a farmer’s coffee crop. Estimates suggest that a single bird could help save 23-65 pounds of coffee per hectare every year from pests. Additionally, shade trees in shade-grown coffee plantations, often the species Inga edulis, fix nitrogen in the soil, providing the coffee trees additional nutrients. Hernandez-Aguilera notes that other services provided by this system include a reduction in temperatures beneath the shade trees, which is a crucial adaptation strategy for climate change.
Hernandez-Aguilera points out that shade-grown coffee beans are often considered higher-quality in the market, and can provide a price premium to farmers that offsets the comparatively lower yields of the shade-grown system. “Our estimates can guide the design of market-based mechanisms that aim to promote sustainable practices in coffee,” Hernandez-Aguilera says. “That said, the effective implementation of these instruments heavily relies on a better promotion and knowledge of the interactions between shade-grown coffee, environmental conservation and product quality among coffee consumers.”
…
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.01.015by International Research Institute for Climate and Society|March 12, 2019
On this farm near Andes in Antioquia, Colombia, coffee trees grow beneath a layer of canopy trees in a shade-grown coffee plantation. Photograph by Guillermo Santos
By Jacquelyn Turner
Coffee has huge importance to many smallholder farmers around the world. The success of a year’s coffee crop can mean the difference between having enough cash in-hand for buying food and watching your household go hungry. For many, it is the crucial component of their food security, despite coffee not being an edible crop.
Ecological Economics
As is true for many agricultural products, the process for growing coffee is complex. Frequently, this process is presented as having trade-offs. Increased use of fertilizer and pesticides will likely lead to higher crop yields, but at significant cost to wildlife populations and human health. Using fewer agrochemicals is more environmentally friendly but requires farmers to face increased risks of losing crops to pests and disease. A recent paper led by researcher Juan Nicolás Hernandez-Aguilera, a postdoctoral scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, suggests this trade-off may not be as straightforward as previously thought, and that farmers could be better off financially if they used shade-growing practices for part of their production.
Usually, coffee is grown in homogenous fields of trees in full sun. Hernandez-Aguilera and his coauthors, who are from Cornell University, examined the merits of an alternative method of growing coffee in the understory of shade-bearing trees. Shade-grown production systems mimic a forest structure and provide better habitats for birds than do full-sun systems. Both the birds and the shade trees provide ecosystem services to the coffee plantations, and these services can replace fertilizer and pesticides and save the farmer money. More birds means more predators of insect pests that can jeopardize a farmer’s coffee crop. Estimates suggest that a single bird could help save 23-65 pounds of coffee per hectare every year from pests. Additionally, shade trees in shade-grown coffee plantations, often the species Inga edulis, fix nitrogen in the soil, providing the coffee trees additional nutrients. Hernandez-Aguilera notes that other services provided by this system include a reduction in temperatures beneath the shade trees, which is a crucial adaptation strategy for climate change.
Hernandez-Aguilera points out that shade-grown coffee beans are often considered higher-quality in the market, and can provide a price premium to farmers that offsets the comparatively lower yields of the shade-grown system. “Our estimates can guide the design of market-based mechanisms that aim to promote sustainable practices in coffee,” Hernandez-Aguilera says. “That said, the effective implementation of these instruments heavily relies on a better promotion and knowledge of the interactions between shade-grown coffee, environmental conservation and product quality among coffee consumers.”
…
