Coffee growing is an important activity for the income of farms and the production of specialty coffees should be encouraged. However, it is necessary that this process respects the principles based on the economic, environmental, and social axes of sustainability. This research was carried out in the municipality of Conceição do Castelo, State of Espírito Santo, Brazil aiming to assess the initial benchmark of the sustainability of three farms. The results showed a gap in the three axes with intervention needs mainly related to economic standards, followed by social and environmental. Different interventions and adaptations need to be used on each farm aiming to reach better levels of adequacy according to sustainability criteria; however, the values of the families and their limitations must be respected, particularly the economic, social, and cultural conditions. The three coffee farms need adjustments for the production of specialty coffees, mainly related to economic criteria. In this way, farms will be able to reach new markets, add value to coffee beans, increase farm income and develop sustainability.
The coffee production chain has great socio-economic importance in Brazil, generating foreign exchange with great job-generating capacity. The Brazilian coffee production is circa 2.863 k tons and coffee research has contributed to the development of new technologies in order to increase yield. However, the size of plots used for coffee experiments has been variable and mostly based on the empirical researcher's experience. Therefore, this research was carried out aiming to determine the optimal size of experimental plots to evaluate field growing parameters of Arabica coffee. The modified maximum curvature model and the comparison of variances were the methods used. It is concluded that 2, 3, 3, and 6 plants per useful experimental plot of Arabica coffee are enough to evaluate the field growing parameters plant height, plant canopy diameter, vigor, and wet mass, respectively by the method of modified maximum curvature. Two plants per experimental plot were required when using the variance comparison method to the parameters plant height, and plant canopy diameter, and 4 plants were enough to the parameters vigor and wet mass. In general, four useful plants per experimental plot were enough using the variance comparison method and six useful plants when using the modified maximum curvature method.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.