Abstract
PurposeCoffee represents an important trade asset internationally. Around 70% of global coffee production is provided by 25 million smallholders farmers. In recent decades, coffee systems have been transformed into more intensified systems of coffee monoculture. The general objectives of this paper are to provide a better picture of the traditional coffee cropping systems and postharvest processes on-farm and to assess the environmental impacts, integrating the diversity of smallholder cropping systems.MethodsA Life Cycle Assessment from cradle to farm gate was performed for three cropping systems representative of Colombian coffee cultivation according to the associated crops and shadow trees: coffee alone (CA), coffee with transition shade (CTS), and coffee with permanent shade (CPS). The system studied includes inputs, agricultural production and postharvest operations using the wet method. The final product of farms is parchment bean coffee at farm gate. The technology used is representative of the average practices of smallholder coffee growers in the region. To address multiple functions of coffee, three functional units (FU) were selected: area by time (ha*year−1 unit area), productivity (ton of parchment coffee) and farmers income (1000 USD$). Seven midpoint categories were selected: climate change, acidification, terrestrial eutrophication, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, and water resource depletion.Results and discussionWe present the life cycle inventory and impact assessment results from three types of cropping systems CA, CTS and CPS. For all FU, the CPS system has the lowest potential impact, excepted for marine eutrophication. CPS also has the highest coffee yields, however it has also the highest costs. Even if cropping system diversification is only one of multiple factors that influence environmental performance, agroforestry seems to be a promising path to reduce and mitigate environmental impacts by decreasing off-fam contributions (input fabrication).ConclusionsResults show the possibility that diversified cropping systems have an influence when assessing potential environmental impacts of coffee at farm gate and differences found might be influenced by shading in traditional coffee systems. Future work is needed to consider the real potential of CTS cropping system including land use and carbon dynamics. Assessments including social indicators and the rest of the value chain in particular coffee industrial transformation and utilization are also needed since the consumption stages are also a key driver to reduce the environmental footprint of coffee.
Highlights
Coffee represents an important trade asset internationally (ICO 2018)
After a presentation of the study site, goal and scope, the data inventory, and the models used to quantify emissions, we present and discuss the impact assessment results for seven impact categories of the three cropping systems representative of main coffee cropping systems found in Colombia (Arcila et al 2007): coffee monoculture named coffee alone (CA), coffee with a transition crop during the early years of the coffee cycle called coffee with a transitional shade (CTS), and coffee with permanent shade (CPS)
Coffee Alone is usually considered as the representative coffee cropping system due to the high productivity and the adoption of this coffee system by bigger farms
Summary
Coffee represents an important trade asset internationally (ICO 2018). Global coffee production represented in 2016 an area of almost 11 million hectares (10,975,184 ha) and a total production of 922,534 green coffee tons (FAO 2018). Waller et al (2007) estimated that about 25 million farmers grow coffee and, according to Bacon (2005), approximately 70% of global production is provided by smallholders who are defined here as farmers operating on less than 2 ha (Lowder et al 2016).In recent decades, coffee cropping systems have been transformed into more intensified systems of coffee monoculture (Jezeer et al 2017; Bhattarai et al 2017). Global coffee production represented in 2016 an area of almost 11 million hectares (10,975,184 ha) and a total production of 922,534 green coffee tons (FAO 2018). Waller et al (2007) estimated that about 25 million farmers grow coffee and, according to Bacon (2005), approximately 70% of global production is provided by smallholders who are defined here as farmers operating on less than 2 ha (Lowder et al 2016). Coffee production deals with fluctuating market prices and with an increased vulnerability driven by climate change (Jezeer et al 2017; Morton 2007). Expected effects for crops include phenological changes, modifications in pests and diseases, increased vulnerability of smallholders, and risk of loss of plant genetic resources (Ovalle-Rivera et al 2015; Läderach et al 2017)
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