Guatemalan Coffee Research Articles

A scenario modelling approach to assess management impacts on soil erosion in coffee systems in Central America

Soil erosion is one of the major causes of soil degradation worldwide, because it causes the depletion of soil organic carbon, nutrients, and water holding capacity. In Central America, coffee production is vulnerable to soil erosion since it often occupies steep slopes with high annual precipitation. To assess management options to control erosion, soil and vegetation field data were collected from 90 Costa Rican and 96 Guatemalan coffee plantations, mainly shaded, distributed in six coffee production areas. Soil erosion was modelled using the RUSLE (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation), integrating soil and vegetation cover field data, with remote sensing data. Management scenarios were developed to assess the role of two principal coffee management strategies in mitigating soil erosion: increasing vegetation cover, and soil conservation practices. Average estimated erosion rates of 17 and 7 Mg ha−1 yr−1 were predicted for plantations of Costa Rica and Guatemala, respectively, with erosion from coffee plantations representing between 23% and 40% of the estimated erosion of the watershed within which they were situated. If all plantations achieved vegetation cover equivalent to the best 25% of plantations, the estimated erosion would be reduced by 7% in Costa Rica and 8% in Guatemala. If all plantations implemented soil conservation practices, estimated erosion would be reduced by 11% in Costa Rica and 35% in Guatemala. With the two combined management strategies a reduction of estimated erosion of 17% and 40% was predicted in Costa Rica and Guatemala, respectively. The reduction in erosion from soil conservation or better vegetative cover varied among regions within countries depending on current management, local climate, and topography. These results show the importance of coffee system and soil management practices in moderating erosion from highland coffee production, and how RUSLE analyses can identify priority practices in different regions supporting more effective policies to reduce soil erosion.

INFLUENCE OF FERMENTATION TIME ON THE SENSORY QUALITY OF ARABICA COFFEE GENOTYPES IN GUATEMALA

In recent years, the Guatemalan coffee plantations have suffered a decline in its yield as a result of coffee rust. The use of cultivars resistant to this disease and with the potential to produce coffee with good drinking quality is essential for the sustainability of coffee cultivation in the country. The aim of this study was to analyze bean quality potential and the sensory profile of rust-resistant Arabica coffee genotypes as a function of different times of biological fermentation. The experiment was carried out in July 2014, at El Panorama farm, located in the municipality of San Rafael Pie de La Cuesta, Department of San Marcos, Guatemala. Eight rust resistant F5 progenies were tested and cultivars Marsellesa and Bourbon Amarelo were used as controls. Each genotype was subjected to two times of biological fermentation in water, after peeling (24 and 72 h). The experimental design was randomized complete blocks with three replications, in a 10 (genotypes) × 2 (times) factorial scheme, totaling 60 experimental units. The quality, sensory profile and granulometry of the treatments were evaluated. All the rust-resistant genotypes studied showed potential to produce specialty coffees in Guatemala and a superior granulometry in relation to Bourbon Amarelo. Marsellesa and Bourbon Amarelo obtained higher final scores and the attributes flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance and overall were more accentuated. The time of biological fermentation did not influence the final score of the coffee (total score in the SCA protocol); however, there was a change in the sensory profile, with emphasis on cultivar Marsellesa, which increased the frequency of fruity notes and reduced caramel notes with longer fermentation time.

Integrating the four faces of climate change adaptation: Towards transformative change in Guatemalan coffee communities

• Climate change adaptation has four expressions: practical, critical-structural, personal, and co-generative. • When limits were met using practical adaptation, farmers sought critical-structural adaptive strategies. • ‘Interior’ adaptations (personal and co-generative) were able to be effectively integrated with other forms of adaptation. • Enacting a more comprehensive adaptation may provide greater possibilities for transformative change. Despite the complexity of climate change, the dominant definition and practice of adaptation remains reactive, incremental, and focused primarily on biophysical and techno-managerial changes. Researchers suggest this is necessary but insufficient, noting the importance of integrating subjectivity in a more comprehensive approach to adaptation and in moving toward deliberate transformation in a climate change context. Here, I consider how to expand the scope and depth of ‘adaptation’ as it is currently defined and practiced, presenting an Integral conceptual framework that integrates the ‘interior’ forms of adaptation and thus can account for the diverse ways that local people are responding to entangled changes at the local level. Drawing on case study research in Guatemala, I explore how a more balanced integration of subjective and objective adaptive capacities, in individuals and collectives, leads to four types of adaptation—personal, practical, critical-structural, and co-generative. Findings describe: 1) how critical-structural adaptations were helpful in disrupting structural arrangements in ways that practical adaptations alone were not; and 2) that the interior adaptations (personal and co-generative) were less emphasized overall but can be effectively integrated, either implicitly or explicitly, with dominant forms of adaptation practice. This study demonstrates how a more comprehensive approach to adaptation may better position communities to engage in transformative change.

Bee diversity in secondary forests and coffee plantations in a transition between foothills and highlands in the Guatemalan Pacific Coast.

BackgroundAlthough conservation of pristine habitats is recognized in many countries as crucial for maintaining pollinator diversity, the contribution of secondary forest conservation is poorly recognized in the Latin American context, such as in Guatemala. San Lucas Tolimán (SLT) is a high-quality coffee production region from the Atitlan Province, which has the second highest deciduous forest cover in Guatemala and pristine forest is prioritized for conservation. In contrast, secondary forest protection is undetermined, since these forests are normally removed or strongly affected by coffee farming practices. This situation may affect the diversity of native pollinators, mainly bees, which usually rely on the secondary forest for food resources.MethodsWe conducted a study to investigate the importance of secondary forests around the SLT coffee plantations (Coffea arabica L.) for pollinators. We compared bee diversity (richness, abundance and composition) in secondary forests of different age and coffee plantations with diverse farming techniques. Being the first study of pollinators in Guatemalan coffee plantations, we also recorded data for an entire year (2013–2014) in order to describe bee seasonality.ResultsWe found significant differences in bee diversity between the coffee plantations and secondary forests, particularly early secondary forests showed higher bee abundances but diversity indices were similar between different vegetation type plots. In the early dry season, secondary forests showed the greatest native bee diversity. During the late dry season, when the coffee was flowering, honey bees were dominant in the same plots. This study provides important management insights to support the conservation of pollinators, since our results offer guidelines to improve coffee production by increasing native pollinator diversity.

A cross case synthesis of the social and economic development of three Guatemalan coffee cooperatives

Cooperatives in the international coffee sector can help build farmer capacity, increase coffee productivity, and improve farmer welfare. The purpose of this research was to examine Guatemalan coffee cooperatives to determine unique attributes, social capital perspectives, and social impacts on small holder farmers. Four perspectives on social capital and economic development were examined across cases: (a) the communitarian view, (b) the networks view, (c) the institutional view, and (d) the synergy view. The research design was mini-ethnographic case study with cross-case synthesis. The emerging themes were (a) economic impacts, (b) multiple generation farmers, (c) capacity building trainings to improve crop management, (d) use of shade trees and organic matter for soil amendments, (e) service learning/agritourism, and (f) use of microloans to enhance economic development. Based upon the exploratory cases, each community had similar and unique internal and external interactions that could be triangulated with social capital perspectives. Networks were formed between members of the co-ops (intracommunity) giving a sense of community and purpose (i.e. agritourism, service learning) and external sources (i.e. workshops/trainings and a USAID research plot). The concept of social capital perspective gives insight into an explanation of economic development.

Between a rock and a hard place: rural transformations and migrant communities in Guatemala

ABSTRACTMy case study of a Guatemalan coffee cooperative illustrates how migrant aspirations shape and are being shaped by this rural institution, and how local dynamics and international flows interact. I understand aspirations to involve negotiations of the past in the present, thus serving as a compass for action. Opportunities for coffee production and access to land that are opened by the remittance economy provide more than material gains; they expand rural people’s sense of self and change their position in relation to others. While aspirations alone cannot secure broad social change, they provide hope that is crucial to endure difficult conditions.

Suppression of Ceratitis capitata (Wied.) (Diptera: Tephritidae) populations in coffee in the Mexico–Guatemala border region through the augmentative releases of Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

ABSTRACTIn Guatemalan coffee plantations, Ceratitis capitata populations were suppressed by the application of augmentative releases of parasitoids. These releases significantly increased parasitism of this fruit fly over paired no-release control areas. Integrated management plus biological control presented a significant reduction in the pest population. These results support the application of biological control in C. capitata management.

Utility, Risk and Demand for Incomplete Insurance: Lab Experiments with Guatemalan Co-Operatives

Abstract We play a series of incentivised laboratory games with risk-exposed co-operativised Guatemalan coffee farmers to understand the demand for index-based rainfall insurance. We estimate an explicit utility curve for every player and hence predict expected utility demand under counterfactual scenarios. Using these estimates, we provide a precise money-metric decomposition of the extent to which the low observed demand for index insurance is driven by expected utility theory, or by behavioural issues arising from a prospect-style utility structure. Our results suggest that consumers value probabilistic insurance using a prospect-style utility function that is concave both in probabilities and in income.

Using a livelihoods framework to analyze farmer identity and decision making during the Central American coffee leaf rust outbreak: implications for addressing climate change and crop diversification

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study of one Guatemalan coffee cooperative examined the decision making process of smallholder farmers as they struggled to preserve their livelihoods during an outbreak of coffee leaf rust (CLR). The results revealed that although the cooperative members viewed the CLR as a threat to livelihoods, it was no greater a threat than other crises such as low coffee prices, extreme weather events, and persistent food insecurity. In response, members suspended organic coffee production, borrowed money to purchase food, sought off-farm employment, and grew limited subsistence crops. Yet most interestingly, for the long-term, they remained fully committed to producing high quality arabica coffee even though the cooperative was aware a future CLR outbreak could again devastate production. These findings question the underlying assumption of crop diversification initiatives which rarely consider the importance of farmer identity. Crop diversification and off-farm employment schemes seek to mitigate environmental threats (e.g., climate change) that smallholder farmers face, however this research shows that farmer identity can be just as, if not more, important than crop yields or even income generation. The authors propose a three-stage smallholder producer vulnerability framework to better understand and analyze future livelihoods disruptions of smallholder producers.

Use and perceptions of alternative economic activities among smallholder coffee farmers in Huehuetenango and El Quiché departments in Guatemala

ABSTRACTIn the past two decades, Mesoamerican smallholder coffee farmers have had to confront several stressors and shocks, such as price crises and natural disasters, with debilitating impacts on the viability of their livelihoods. More recently, many farmers have suffered crop losses in the wake of the spread of coffee leaf rust disease, and researchers are predicting that some areas will become less suitable for coffee growing in the near future as a result of climate change. For these reasons, many have called for the promotion of livelihood diversification as an additional component of rural development programs. This study uses thematic analysis of transcripts from 15 interviews with members of a regional Guatemalan coffee cooperative, Asociación Barillense de Agricultores, based on four different interview guides. Coffee remains the primary livelihood strategy of the respondents, whereas most other activities appear to offer relatively small contributions to incomes, with the exception of honey and a small sewing shop. Some of the farmer responses reflect coping mechanisms rather than risk management. The study also identified other themes mediating diversification, including income-smoothing, optimization, familiarity, social networks, and influences from external actors.

Policy Brief for the International Coffee Organization (ICO) on Behalf of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Regarding Human Rights Violations on Coffee Farms in Guatemala

This policy paper outlines the issue of human rights violations on Guatemalan coffee farms in the form of forced labor. It outlines two recommendations for the International Coffee Organization, an intergovernmental organization dedicated to bringing together coffee’s largest importing and exporting nations and tackle challenges the coffee sector faces today through international cooperation, to consider when addressing the issue. This policy is presented on behalf of the International Labor Organization, an organization dedicated to promoting social justice and human rights in the labor market that will lead to lasting and universal peace.

Configurando la cadena de café: Casas mercantiles alemanas y consumo de café Guatemalteco en Alemania 1889-1929

<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, la industrialización alemana y el consiguiente cambio en las estrategias de inversión del comercio anseático en los países latinoamericanos productores de café cambió marcadamente las preferencias del consumo de este producto entre la población alemana. Partiendo de una perspectiva transnacional, este artículo explica cómo comerciantes anseáticos de café, en respuesta a mayores riesgos comerciales desarrollaron estrategias diferenciadas de mercadeo y apuntalaron prácticas de consumo que iban a equilibrar no sólo sus riesgos comerciales, sino a satisfacer las necesidades diversas del sector industrial, como las de las emergentes clases media y alta de Alemania. Su inversión en la producción cafetalera de Guatemala estaba destinada a desempeñar una parte clave en este esquema.</span></span></p>

Coffee Tourism and Community Development in Guatemala

Agritourism, a key segment of the rural tourism sector that incorporates both a working farm environment and a commercial tourism component, is well studied in the European and North American contexts. However, there is a lack of comparable data for developing countries. This paper explores the development of coffee tourism by a Guatemalan coffee cooperative. It highlights two significant findings regarding the benefits and limitations of agritourism initiatives in less developed countries. First, it details how the development of the coffee tour helped to strengthen the cooperative's organizational capacity in several specific ways, including the introduction of a diversified managerial structure, extensive training opportunities, and new professional positions. However, it also demonstrates that the coffee tour would have been very difficult to initiate without the substantial external support the cooperative received. Second, the paper explores the content of the coffee tour itself, which moves beyond a narrow focus on agriculture to affirm indigenous identity and culture. The coffee tour echoes the themes of the larger "identity economy" that has grown exponentially in the past decades (Comaroff and Comaroff 2009). Although the tour emphasizes community traditions and history, its benefits are not evenly distributed among residents; while cooperative members receive the benefits, the potential costs, both tangible and intangible, associated with an influx of tourists are borne by the community as a whole. This poses a challenge to the common deployment of concepts like "community" and "local" in tourism development and research.

Fruits from shade trees in coffee: how important are they?

Agroforestry systems often receive attention and support in the literature for what is perceived as the benefits from multiple products associated with the trees that create the “forest” component of the setting. A comparison of small coffee growers’ use of fruits derived from the coffee agroforestry holding in Guatemala and Peru reveals that significant differences exist between these groups—not merely in the importance of the fruits themselves, but in the ways they are used. The overall importance of fruits from the coffee system accounts for a relatively small portion of the total value coming from the coffee area (about 10%), but the consumption and sales of the various products do generate needed income or sustenance for most farmers. The fate of fruits shows significant differences between the two countries. Whether at the farm level or on a per hectare basis, Guatemalan coffee farmers are more linked into a market economy and sell significantly more fruits than Peruvian farmers. The opposite is the case when on-farm consumption (use value) of the fruits is compared. While the potential value of these products may be quite large (from $95 to $270/ha), we find that little gets consumed or sold, resulting in tremendous loss of potential benefits that could flow from these sources. Both groups lose more fruits than are sold or used, with Guatemalans foregoing more than three times the dollar value per hectare than Peruvians ($151/ha vs. $44/ha). Data about the economic context within which these growers and the fruits from coffee are found reveal possible reasons as to why we see the differences in use and exchange values realized in the two countries.

The International Coffee Agreement and the Production of Coffee in Guatemala, 1962—1989

From 1962 to 1989, the coffee-producing and coffee-consuming nations created a commodity agreement limiting the amount of coffee a nation could export in order to correct two structural deficiencies: global overproduction of coffee and drastic price movements associated with weather-related phenomena. During the 27 years of this quota agreement, Guatemala had a unique opportunity to get farmers to diversify from coffee to other export commodities and allow farmers to use new technology to improve their profitability. The Asociación Nacional del Café (ANACAFE) administered these diversification and technification programs, while the London-based International Coffee Organization (ICO) regulated the international coffee trade. However, the ICO achieved more success in reducing overproduction of coffee and stopping downward price movements than ANACAFE did in implementing diversification and technification. Because ANACAFE failed to disseminate technification to the vast majority of the small coffee-producers, when the ICO allowed quotas to expire in 1989 the vast majority of the Guatemalan coffee growers found themselves not as price-competitive as their Central American neighbors.

Living in times of solidarity: Fair trade and the fractured life worlds of Guatemalan coffee farmers

AbstractThis paper examines the social effects of fair trade transactions emerging from policies to expand the market around the globe. Focusing on the case of coffee farmers in Guatemala, it examines tensions that are created in local organisational networks linked to production, processing and certification of fair trade organic coffee and how these tensions fracture and fragment the life worlds of these coffee farmers. While the fair trade market has provided positive opportunities for rural producers the research finds that network separation and market exclusion are also social expressions of involvement in fair trade. It is argued that fair trade policies need to reflect a more nuanced understanding of household and community level consequences of production for the fair trade market. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We Want To Be Equal to Them: Fair-trade Coffee Certification and Gender Equity within Organizations

This paper analyzes the understudied gendered dimensions of fair-trade coffee networks and certification practices. It combines data collected during 14 months of fieldwork among the members of a Guatemalan coffee cooperative with a survey of the existing literature on fair-trade coffee cooperatives to demonstrate that the current fair-trade network is falling far short of its goal to promote gender equity, particularly in three important realms: voting and democratic participation, the promotion of non-agricultural income generating programs, and support for female coffee producers. In consideration of the fact that international donors are increasingly funding certification-based poverty solutions, such as fair trade, this paper argues that the promotion of gender equity through certification standards and practices needs to be a vital component of the fair-trade mission, lest the promotion of gender equity in agricultural communities be neglected. It concludes that a participatory certification process would help address two central concerns: (1) the effectiveness of the certification process (in terms of identifying and correcting problems associated with gender equity within groups) and (2) the adequacy of current fair-trade certification standards in light of producer diversity.

Characterization of Headspace Aroma Compounds of Freshly Brewed Arabica Coffees and Studies on a Characteristic Aroma Compound of Ethiopian Coffee

A sampling method to isolate headspace volatiles of freshly brewed drip coffee using a solid-phase microextraction fiber (fiber type: divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane) in a short time (2 min) immediately after extraction has been developed. Volatile compounds and potent odorants obtained from each headspace aroma of various arabica coffee extracts (3 production countries: Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Guatemala; 3 roasting degrees for each country: L26, L23, and L18) using the sampling method were examined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and GC/olfactometry (GC/O, CharmAnalysis). The results of principal component analysis (PCA) using the data of GC/O analysis showed that the aroma profile of Ethiopian coffee was discriminately different from those of Tanzanian coffee and Guatemalan coffee. In addition, it was suggested from the factor loading of the PCA that 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone (raspberry ketone; sweet-fruity odor) characterized the aroma profile of freshly brewed Ethiopian coffee. Therefore, the 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone was quantified in the 9 kinds of coffee extracts. Ethiopian coffee extract of the lightly roasted degree (roasting degree: L26) contained the highest amount of this component, while it was only a little over the reported threshold. In the sensory test, the headspace aromas of Tanzanian and Guatemalan coffees in which 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone was added were, respectively, discriminated from not added samples, and "sweet" odor was selected as an odor description that assessors found similarity between the added Tanzanian or Guatemalan coffee aroma and the Ethiopian coffee aroma. It was suggested that 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone made some detectable change on total aroma profile even though the added amount was only near threshold level.

Ladinos with Ladinos, Indians with Indians: land, labor, and regional ethnic conflict in the making of Guatemala

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: Re-Writing Guatemala's Nineteenth Century 1. The Transformation of Mam Quezaltenango from Culah to Independence 2. Disputing Property: National Politics and Local Ethnic Conflict in the Formation of a Guatemalan Coffee Zone 3. Debt, Labor Coercion, and the Expansion of Commercial Agriculture 4. Intoxicating Politics: Gender, Ethnicity and Alcohol in the Transition to Liberal Rule 5. From Ladino State to Ladino Nation: The Malformation of Guatemalan National Identity 6. Popular Insurrection, Liberal Reform, and Nation-State Formation: Final Reflections on Guatemala's Nineteenth Century Notes Index

Speaking of History: How Adolescents Use Their Knowledge of History in Reading the Daily News

Academically able history students (n = 10) from 2 high schools reflecting different ideological commitments and approaches to academic excellence were asked to think aloud as they read current newspaper articles on 2 topics: school prayer and Starbucks' treatment of its Guatemalan coffee workers. The purpose was to explore how adolescents use their knowledge of history when interpreting current affairs during an everyday activity of political and cultural life. Principal findings are: (a) Students expressed their thoughts with the aid of background narratives that contrasted how things were at some point "back then" and how things are now, (b) the 2 groups used different historical events and ideas to simultaneously enunciate their background narratives and contextualize each news-story case, and (c) students with different background narratives represented the facts of the same news story differently. Conclusions address cultural resources students exploited (common frameworks of historical eras and of core values, interpreted here as key orienting devices for political talk in the public sphere), and the challenge to earlier research portraying adolescents as "presentist."