Coping Strategies of Smallholder Coffee Farmers under the COVID-19 Impact in Indonesia

Abstract

COVID-19 significantly impacts coffee production, which smallholders dominate. Unaddressed impacts will affect coffee production sustainability. However, smallholders face some constraints. This study aims to determine the impact of COVID-19 from the perspective of Arabica and Robusta farmers in Indonesia, examine technical recommendations as coping strategies, and develop an institutional model to accelerate implementation. We analyzed the divergences in the perceptions of different categories and clusters using farm-level data. Descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney analysis, cluster analysis, and crosstab analysis were used to explore the facts. Immediate effects of COVID-19 were observed through a decline in household income, impacting the allocation of farming costs, which influences productivity related to the intensity of cultivation, particularly in purchasing and fertilization decisions. It was explored by the study that coffee livestock integration is an important strategy to improve farmers’ livelihood to mitigate the impact. The innovation sharing model complements this technical recommendation as institutional recommendations, including innovation sharing elements and processes. Four farmer clusters have been identified based on the adoption spectrum and farmer conditions. The intervention provides innovation-sharing elements for farmers who have not adopted integration. Where integration was partially completed, reusing waste is recommended by completing innovation elements and improving the sharing process.

Does the COVID-19 epidemic impact on economic sustainability of big agricultural firms in Indonesia?

“…Therefore, farmers' income drops as their crops deteriorate, pests and diseases spread unchecked, and they have a more challenging time selling their products. The same situation was also experienced by horticultural farmers [11], tomatoes farmers [12], and small scale coffee farmers in Indonesia [13]. The immediate consequences of COVID-19 were seen in the form of a drop in household income, which affected how agricultural expenditures were distributed, affecting productivity in relation to cultivation intensity, especially regarding purchasing and fertilization decisions [13].…”

“…The same situation was also experienced by horticultural farmers [11], tomatoes farmers [12], and small scale coffee farmers in Indonesia [13]. The immediate consequences of COVID-19 were seen in the form of a drop in household income, which affected how agricultural expenditures were distributed, affecting productivity in relation to cultivation intensity, especially regarding purchasing and fertilization decisions [13]. Triana et al [11] document that farmers' most significant risk factors are economic rather than health-related factors.…”

Assessing smallholders’ heterogeneity towards sustainable agrifood value chain in developing countries

“…Regardless of various relevant factors to enable sustainable value chain practice, smallholders may not uniformly respond towards changes in practice. The technique for developing smallholders' practices should be cluster-specific (Wulandari et al, 2022). The chances for attaining sustainable practice must be assessed in relation to smallholders' perspectives and intentions in order to develop an effective and personalised intervention.…”

“…For instance, Kumar et al (2019) analysed typologies in arid lands for sustainable intensification purposes, which differed primarily in terms of the land size and the types of crops they grew. Meanwhile, Wulandari et al (2022) proposed using smallholder perceptions to guide typology on farm production decisions and reduce risk in order to produce sustainably and then using socio-economic conditions to profile and explain the group's characteristics. In line with this, Barnes et al (2022) revealed that understanding motivation and perception is critical in farmer typology analysis to highlight the existence of 'optimistic versus pessimistic' farmers, which would lead to membership in a more ethical-conservation-oriented group.…”

“…There are countless examples of enablers (El Bilali, 2019;Grwambi et al, 2016;Hansen et al, 2018;Latruffe et al, 2016) and promising technologies which have not been adopted by smallholders in many developing countries (Kumar et al, 2019). According to Wulandari et al (2022), it is mainly because generic recommendations are difficult for smallholders to apply in practice. Many recommendations often do not fit well with heterogeneous smallholder systems which require unique solutions (Goswami et al, 2014).…”