Toward Sustainability or Efficiency: The Case of Smallholder Coffee Farmers in Vietnam

Abstract

This study attempts to uncover the truth behind an increasing number of smallholder farmers participating in sustainable coffee farming in Vietnam. Using stochastic frontier and cost-benefit analysis, a sample of 316 smallholder farmers in Dak Lak was chosen to analyze the economic impacts of sustainable and conventional coffee farming on farmers’ welfare. In addition, we conducted field observation and key informant interviews to describe several farming practices. The results highlight the fact that farmers’ decisions to participate in sustainable coffee farming are mainly driven by economic benefits. Sustainable farming is more cost-effective and profitable than conventional farming, despite the insignificant difference in production efficiency. Improvement of education, farming knowledge, and collective actions could mitigate negative effects of small-scale production for sustainable coffee farmers. Pesticide management, shade coffee encouragement, and reduction of excessive fertilization, over-irrigation, and unproductive coffee varieties are recommended for sustainable development of the sector.

Roadmapping as a Driver for Knowledge Creation: A Proposal for Improving Sustainable Practices in the Coffee Supply Chain from Chiapas, Mexico, Using Emerging Technologies

“…In relation with other studies, the economy benefits brought on by the management of additional crops in the coffee area are evidenced in the study done by [104], in the use of macadamia intercropping; the family members/age and sustainable practices relationship are demonstrated in [105] by detecting an average age similar to that in this study. .…”

“…The positive impact of sustainable practices must be urgently known and evidenced to all coffee small producers in the world, from the increase in the management, quality, price to the rate of return [101,105,125,126]. Only in this way could the catastrophic projection of the reduction of the 97% suitable areas in Mexico for the year 2050 be mitigated [12]; enhancing the socio-economic situation of the coffee local producers [127] and explaining the benefits of the adoption of new processes [128].…”

Consumer Trust in Quality and Safety of Food Products in Western Siberia

“…Actually, no one thinks of how products "get" on the shelves, how they are stored, what methods are used in their production, whether these products are safe for health. However, in the world's experience, these factors have long been considered decisive (see, for example, the works of Baum & Pauls [44]; Quintanilla et al [45]; Hung Anh et al [46]).…”

Soil nitrogen cycling under contrasting management systems in Amazon Coffea canephora agroecosystems

“…The majority (78%) of robusta coffee harvested in the Ecuadorian Amazon is produced with low to zero N fertilizer inputs and often integrates leguminous trees (LTs), with relatively low yields that average 0.45 Mg green bean ha −1 (Monteros, 2017). As robusta green beans are estimated to contain 35 kg N Mg −1 (Hung- Anh et al, 2019), these yields would require N inputs of at least 15.8 kg ha −1 to meet N export via coffee harvest. Thus, even relatively low N inputs compared with industrialized systems-either via biological N fixation or fertilization-may meet the needs of low-yield robusta coffee in these smallholder systems.…”