Agriculture and Environment: Commodities

Better Management Practices: Reduce Input Use

Some of the best prices for coffee, even in the face of declining overall world prices in 2002, are those for shade-grown highland coffee from Guatemala and Mexico.

In these areas, even when the average world price has been declining, the price of fine highland, shade-grown coffee has remained relatively stable. For example, in Nicaragua speciality coffee is currently selling for U.S. $1.20 per pound while the regular price for coffee is $0.55 per pound (McEwan and Allgood 2001).

Unfortunately, the speciality markets that support such prices are not well developed and cannot handle all of the certified coffee that is currently available.

Working out financially viable systems
Yet if markets can be successfully developed and maintained, biodiversity and habitat improvements can be incorporated into coffee production systems in ways that do not affect overall profitability and that may in fact increase overall producer financial viability through certification.

This could happen in several ways - either through a premium paid to the producer for certified product, giving the producer access to more transparent information about actual prices for conventional coffee, or the producer reducing overall costs and/or increasing production through the adoption of better management practices that are required by certification.

Microorganisms put to use!
In shade coffee systems there is negligible use of pesticides, and both the substances used and levels of use can be dictated by certifiers. Furthermore, there are now management techniques that use microorganisms to manage fungal diseases.

Native microorganisms and effective microorganisms (EMs), naturally occurring or applied organisms that speed up the breakdown of organic matter, suppress many fungal problems simply by providing competition to the pathogens.