About the project

INTRODUCTION

There is a growing concern over climatic variability and price volatility in global markets for cash crops produced in developing countries. One of the cutting edge questions in global change research deals with how to reduce risks and increase adaptation capacity of vulnerable farmers in impoverished areas.

This research focuses on identifying livelihood adaptation strategies of coffee growers as a response to price fluctuation, climate change and increase in pest proliferation. It consists in a comparative case study about coffee growers from selected regions from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. To achieve the research goals, a multidisciplinary research approach is used, with participation of researchers from various disciplines such as anthropology, ecology, and economy.


PROJECT GOALS

• Identify key impacts of economic and climatic shocks as well as biological stresses on the livelihoods of coffee farmers and their social networking.
• Analyze and evaluate current contexts structuring farmers’ decisions.
• Evaluate the outcomes of both individual and group strategies to adapt to economic and climatic crisis situations at the household level.
• Identify strategies that farmers perceive as most effective in reducing risk or enhancing resilience.
• Analyze the role (facilitate and/or limit) that community/based organizations, government institutions, and other organizations play in increasing the resilience and adaptation capacity of coffee growers to economic, climatic, and biological shocks.
• Explore some of the implications of household strategies for the regions in which farmers are operating.
• Communicate results to policy makers and foster communication channels between communities and local and national governments in a participatory process to create or revise programs and policies that address climatic change, economic fluctuations, and crop pest impacts in the coffee sub-sector.