Examining the interface of sustainability programmes and livelihoods in the Semendo highlands of Indonesia

Abstract

Voluntary sustainability standards are used as both a means of securing coffee supply by large coffee firms and a development intervention to address rural poverty and environmental management in the Global South. Using a case‐study approach, we have examined the interface between a value‐chain sustainability programme and the livelihood trajectories of smallholder producers in upland Sumatra. Our research found the programme has had minimal impacts for coffee producers to date. The level of commitment required of producers appears incompatible with the particular way that coffee is currently embedded within local landscapes, livelihoods and poverty alleviation pathways. Various sustainability standards articulate a narrative of rural development underpinned by an assumption that agricultural modernisation is the preferred pathway out of poverty for rural households. As a result, there is some risk that sustainability programmes may be inadvertently attempting to encourage household investment in a particular kind of agriculture, which is intended to assist sustainability of supply, but is poorly aligned with prevailing processes of poverty alleviation. These observations are based on a detailed study of agrarian change among the Semendo people of South Sumatra province, where processes of rural development are far more complex than assumptions presented by mainstream sustainability standards.

Breaching the black box: The role of ramps in Thai sustainable palm oil certification

“…If certification processes do not replace socially embedded horizontal relations and dynamicsor include them into the certified GVCthese horizontal networks can persist. Certified producers might therefore continue to interact with horizontal networks limiting their scope of action and hindering the expansion of certification (Ab Rahman et al, 2009;Dallinger, 2011;Brandi et al, 2015;Bray and Neilson, 2018). However, rather than simply rejecting locally embedded actors, certification programmes may also benefit from their potential role within the certified GVCby converging formal (business) and informal (horizontal) flows of certification-relevant information (Bush and Oosterveer, 2007).…”

Institutional environments and the livelihood impacts of voluntary sustainability standards: A Village‐based analysis from southern Sumatra's coffee sector

“…However, these firms have different terms and strategies, meaning producers and labour within firms do not necessarily reap uniform rewards, if any, of value chain upgrading (Barrientos et al ., ), particularly if strategies are focused on short‐term, profit‐driven motives. Where product upgrading does occur in the coffee sector, this may be associated with lead firms using certification as a tool to remove the worst quality coffee from their supply chains (Bray & Neilson, ), which could result in differentiated impacts at origin. This demonstrates that lead firms are highly influential in shaping the activities and effectiveness of farmer organizations and the market relationships between producers and downstream buyers.…”

“…Across the study villages, patronage is readily evident between coffee traders and their suppliers, usually in the forms of informal credit, which traders use to guarantee supply. More recently, coffee exporters’ attempts in study villages A and B to insert themselves into direct competition with these local coffee traders generated both competition and outright tension, which was eventually tempered by the ability of local traders to use their social networks and lower quality requirements to insert themselves into the supply chain as ‘preferred suppliers’ for coffee exporters (Bray & Neilson, ). This is enabled by the top‐down structure of VSS, which allows local participation to be determined by those with significant power, namely farmer group heads, traders and bureaucratic elite.…”

Collective Action Milieus and Governance Structures of Protected Geographical Indications for Coffee in Colombia, Thailand and Indonesia

“…The ability of sustainability standards, however, to induce significant change for producers has been increasingly questioned due in part to their mainstreaming and inability to ensure quality differentiation at the producer level (Bray and Neilson 2018;Grabs 2018;Mutersbaugh et al 2008). Disillusionment with standards has encouraged some roasters to engage in direct "relationship coffees" to improve both producers' livelihoods and their corporate images (Vicol et al 2018).…”