Making specialty coffee and coffee-cherry value chains work for family farmers’ livelihoods: A participatory action research approach

• DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2023.100551
• Publication Date: 2023-12-15T16:56:32Z
• Authors: Johanna Jacobi; Derly Lara; Sebastian Opitz; Sabine de Castelberg; Sergio Urioste; Alvaro Irazoque; Daniel Castro; Elio Wildisen; Nelson Gutierrez; Chahan Yeretzian
• Keywords: Value chain; Commodity chain; Specialty

Coffee provides a livelihood to millions of smallholder farmers, but comes with serious challenges as incomes are often meagre and the climate crisis threatens most coffeegrowing areas. Specialty coffee markets reward quality, which can increase farm-gate prices, may enhance shaded diversified coffee-farming systems. In origin countries such Colombia Bolivia, specialty is typically exported, whereas lower-quality marketed for domestic consumption. Local demand growing, however, coffee-cherry products increasingly traded consumed. This bears potential retaining more value in among farmers. However, how farming families better profit from its by-products, dried cherries (also known cascara or sultana), remains poorly understood. We applied value-chain analysis combined institutional Participatory Market-Chain Approach (PMCA) investigate impact on families' livelihoods Bolivia. embedded research an development framework identify actors chains, costs benefits livelihoods. Then, we adopted action approach bring different together co-create improvements green coffee, roasted cherries. Our included: (1) interviews, surveys, participant observation, document analysis; (2) events, videos, courses, competitions, recipe collection coffee-cherries. found that direct sale international customers, local farmer-owned shops were beneficial models families. The generated tangible results terms product development, organization, educational organization. Government private-sector support should consider functioning entire sector social-ecological outcomes production