Group membership and certification effects on incomes of coffee farmers in Uganda

Discrepancies in certification effects on smallholder incomes have been found in scientific literature. Unobserved farmer-group heterogeneity is a likely reason. For the long-standing Robusta coffee farmer-groups in Uganda, we find no significant effect of certification on net-farm income. But, we find 20 percentage point differences in net-farm income between certified and non-certified farmers explained by membership duration. In contrast, the recently founded certified Arabica coffee farmer-groups have positive net-farm income effects of 151 per cent, partly explained by a higher degree of vertical integration. With or without certification, long-standing group membership is found to have positive income effects

Stakeholder engagement in prioritizing sustainability assessment themes for smallholder coffee production in Uganda

Many sustainability assessment frameworks have been developed in recent years, but translating them into practical tools to guide decision making remains challenging. By engaging coffee stakeholders in Uganda, we demonstrate a process of translating the widely-accepted framework for Sustainability Assessments of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA), developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), to smallholder production systems. Stakeholders prioritized the sustainability themes in terms of relevance and feasibility, and subsequently identified relevant sub-themes. We find that the structure and scope of some generally accepted themes need appropriate modifications in order to address the social and structural heterogeneity of smallholder production systems. Although importance and feasibility rankings significantly vary within and between stakeholder groups, governance and economic themes are commonly perceived as very important though equally the least feasible for smallholders. Thus, the inclusion of the ‘farmer-group’ structure as part of the sustainability assessment criteria is perceived as necessary especially toward achieving governance-related goals. These findings emphasize the need of engaging stakeholders in defining locally adapted sustainability assessment criteria

Sustainability Performance of Certified and Non-certified Smallholder Coffee Farms in Uganda

The transition toward sustainable agricultural production can be supported with improved insight into the performance of existing farming systems. The Sustainability Assessments of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) framework published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) provides a comprehensive and harmonised framework to assess and compare farming systems. We used the indicator-based SAFA consistent Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment RouTine (SMART) Farm Tool to analyze and compare the sustainability performance of certified organic and fair trade as well as non-certified smallholder farms in Uganda. Using the respective sustainability scores, we analyzed the synergies and trade-offs between sustainability themes using the non-parametric Spearman correlation test. We find that certification is associated with improved sustainability performance of smallholder coffee farms. It enhances the achievement of governance goals through its influences on group organization and collective capacities - this results in positive effects on other sustainability dimensions. Major synergies were observed between social and governance themes, and between economic and environmental themes. Although, the extent and distribution of the synergies and trade-offs varied among farms, they were consistent between the production systems. These results show that the production systems can potentially have more influence on the sustainability performance than certification per se

Mechanisation in smallholder organic production

The training manual explains the principles, challenges and opportunities for smallholder organic farmers to apply mechanisation to reduce drudgery in organic farming, focussing on crop production. It invites participants, through didactic suggestions, to discuss the broad topic

Organic Vegetable Production - Basic Principles and Methods - A Resource Manual for Trainers

The manual offers a generic introduction to organic vegetable production. It highlights aspects such as seed selection, nursery management, field establishment, weed management, pest and disease management, harvesting, and postharvest management

Organic Vegetable Production - Basic Principles and Methods - A Resource Manual for Trainers

The manual offers a generic introduction to organic vegetable production. It highlights aspects such as seed selection, nursery management, field establishment, weed management, pest and disease management, harvesting, and postharvest management