Drivers influencing farmer decisions for adopting organic or conventional coffee management practices
This article in the Food Policy journal investigates which drivers influence farmer’s decision-making on adopting organic or conventional coffee management practices. The authors use the case of Santader, Colombia, one of the world’s most important producers of Arabica coffee, where both conventional and organic schemes of management are used. The results suggests that social identity of coffee growers, the influence of coffee institutions, attitudes about management practices, and social relations of production, all play an important role in the process of decision making. The authors identified 18 socioeconomic drivers. Important factors were technology availability, the type of landowner, formal education of farmers, the role of institutions, membership of community organisations, farm size, coffee productivity and the number of coffee plots per farm. Likewise, economic drivers, such as crop profitability, determined how farmers are involved in trade and market networks at broad regional, national, and international spatial scales. The complexity of factors that influencing adoption of coffee management schemes is great and that not only financial factors but also a variety of other social factors drive farmer decision making. The authors argue that identifying the most influential behavioural drivers provides policy with opportunities to better support farmer livelihoods.