The Coffee Crisis, Fair Trade, and Agroecological Transformation: Impacts on Land-Use Change in Costa Rica

This research evaluated the impacts of Fair Trade marketing networks and shade-tree diversification on the reduction of land-use change out of coffee production in the district of Agua Buena, Costa Rica. These resistance strategies were deployed by smallholder coffee farmers in response to the “coffee crisis,” which involved record low coffee commodity prices and record high external input costs. This research found that Fair Trade price premiums were inconsequential in providing support for smallholder resistance to land-use change out of coffee production. In contrast, the adoption of agroecological practices such as shade-tree diversification reduced reliance on costly external inputs, which allowed adopting producers to keep land in coffee production at a significantly higher rate than non-adopters. One conclusion drawn is that when addressing agricultural development crises, the promotion of agroecological practices that cut costs may be as good a strategy or better than one that focuses on enhancing yields or establishing price supports.