III. TRANSFORMING THE PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE OF COFFEE

The coffee landscape of northern Latin America reflects the culmination of the human activities associated with coffee's introduction, acceptance, and spread as it came to replace the cash crops of colonial times and to gain a place of prominence into the late twentieth century. The "traditional" coffee of today has actually evolved since this African shrub was first brought to the New World in the 18th century. Early on, coffee was often placed in the open sun, a practice that growers soon changed by planting shade or placing coffee in areas only partially cleared of their native forests. By the dawn of this century, a production system charactertized by diverse shade and biological richness dominated the coffee landscape. Even after World War II and into the last quarter of this century, most countries of the region (with exceptions like Costa Rica) displayed coffee areas blanketed with a variety of shade trees.

But by the 1970s, things began to change quickly and dramatically. Coffee farmers, just like producers of other crops around the world, found themselves face to face with the forces of modernization. Added emphasis to change production technology came from agronomic problems like threats from diseases. The result has been a sweeping tendency to shift from traditional production techniques to more modern ones, a move that usually involves changes in the shade cover, its management, and the use of agrochemicals.

A. The nature of the traditional coffee farm

Traditionally, the structural profile of a coffee farm in northern Latin America has resembled that of a forest. With coffee as the understory shrub, a mixed shade cover of fruit trees, banana plants, and towering hardwood species forms a forest-like agroecosystem. Such an agroforestry structure results in a fairly stable production system, providing protection from soil erosion, favorable local temperature and humidity regimes, constant replenishment of the soil organic matter via leaf litter production, and home to an array of beneficial insects that can act to control potential economic pests without the use of toxic chemicals. Traditional coffee, in fact, has been cited as the region's most environmentally benign and ecologically stable agroecosystem.^[17]

A strong consideration for the small grower is what the shade coffee system produces in addition to the coffee harvest each year. Indeed, several "non-coffee" products are harvested on a continual basis from traditional coffee holdings. This diversification helps shield small producers from risks arising from the vagaries of nature, international market fluctuations, or societal structures. For many coffee producers in Central America, the mixed nature of shade cover traditionally maintained in coffee provides insurance against uncertainty, and maximum use of limited land holdings becomes an effective survival strategy. The coffee harvest provides income each year, the absolute amount of which depends upon yields and international prices. Other plants and trees in the coffee holding provide a host of products that the grower would otherwise have to buy on the local market (see Box on "Edible, Usable Biodiversity"). A farmer's entire family is often involved in traditional coffee production, especially for the harvest.

Income from selective timber harvest derived from shade trees can be substantial. In studies based on Costa Rican practices, timber stands of Cordia alliodora used as shade in densities of 120-290 trees per hectare, can produce a sustainable output of 6-15 cubic meters per hectare per year of commercial wood.^[18] Timber output such as this can help provide income security for small farmers; for instance, timber harvests from shaded cacao plantations saw Costa Rican producers through several years of tough financial times in the early 1980s, when plant disease decimated cacao production.

The species composition and structure of a traditional coffee system will vary according to country, ecological zone and grower. But examples from several places within northern Latin America point to the similarities of traditional coffee regardless of location. In particular, producers in many countries make use of shade trees in their coffee holdings, with smaller producers tending to make use of a variety of trees that provide edible fruits. In Nicaragua's southern uplands known as the Carazo district, just south of Managua, traditional coffee holdings have at least 25 species of fruit and timber trees associated with them,^[19] many of which are native species to this seasonally dry forest zone. Throughout the region, many farmers plant nitrogen-fixing shade trees belonging to genera such as Inga, Gliricidia, and Erythrina. Small growers prefer to have fruit trees as well, such as citrus, bananas, and guavas.^[20] A study in Venezuela showed growers choosing a mixture of shade trees (distinct from fruit or timber species), fruit trees, bananas and timber species, regardless of the ecological zone in which they happened to produce. The density of shade trees approached 353 per hectare, and total tree density in this study (not counting coffee bushes) reached 561 per hectare in some farm systems.^[21]

B. Characteristics of technified coffee

Beginning in the mid-1970s, a successful push to "renovate," "technify" or "modernize" the coffee sector in much of northern Latin America emerged.^[22] The force behind this move came from a fungal disease known as coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), also known by its Spanish name, la roya ("the rust"), spreading throughout the region. The devastating potential of the rust was known from historical records in India and Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), where the disease halted coffee production within two decades in the second half of the 19th century. The wind-borne spores finally made a New World landfall in 1970 on the east coast of Brazil, an event that triggered panic throughout the coffee industry in the Americas.

Outbreaks and spread in Nicaragua's southern coffee district of Carazo in 1976 heralded the arrival of coffee leaf rust in Central America, prompting an urgent search for solutions. The most popular response was a technological one proposed by the United States Agency for International Development (see Box on Subsidies for Industrial Coffee Production in Recent Decades). With the coordination and financing of USAID or on their own, governments throughout the region implemented or participated in programs to technify their coffee. For most of the region, coffee leaf rust has not posed the problems originally anticipated. This most likely is due to the high elevation (and hence cool temperature) and/or the prolonged, intense dry season -- physical conditions not conducive to the disease's proliferation -- characterizing much of the coffee zone.

Technification -- now more commonly referred to as "modernization" -- consists of the replacement of old, traditional varieties of coffee such as típica or bourbón with newer varieties that respond well to chemical fertilizers. Another feature of the modernization process involves the elimination or reduction of shade, the goal being to open the coffee up to the sun to deter the spread of fungal diseases, and to increase coffee yields.

In many cases, shade removal and establishment of high-yielding coffee plants have not achieved the intended objectives. For example, technification has often entailed planting of caturra, a dwarf mutant coffee variety discovered in Brazil during the last century and brought to Central America in the 1950s, which yields about 30 percent more coffee per shrub if supplied with fertilizer inputs. Although initially touted as being resistant to coffee leaf rust, caturra is, in fact, susceptible to the disease.^[23]

The transformation resembles in many ways the changes that began in basic grain production throughout much of the developing world in the 1950s. The high-yielding varieties of coffee, the use of agrochemicals, and the restructuring of the production unit itself all have their parallels in the "green revolution" associated with corn, wheat and rice production in the South. For coffee, the transformation means increasing the density of coffee plants from 1100-1500 per hectare to 4000-7000 plants per hectare. These higher-yielding varieties are planted very close together and typically plied with petroleum-based fertilizers, as well as herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. As discussed in the following section, these chemical inputs can create their own challenges, not the least of which is toxic exposure for farmworkers due to lack of information about the use and effects of chemical products or the infeasibility of wearing protective clothing in hot weather.

The transformed coffee landscape elicits images of industrial agriculture. The neat rows of coffee beneath direct sun or scant shade resemble an English hedge-row compared to the shrubby understory of a traditional farm. Shade trees, when present in this industrial system, receive "scientific" pruning techniques that produce a thin laminar look to the canopy, thus reducing the structural diversity of what might otherwise offer an array of niches to insects, birds and other animals. Moreover, the limited shade trees sometimes retained in technified sun plantations often tend toward a single species. As discussed below, the modern coffee agroecosystem features much lower levels of structural and species diversity than the traditional coffee farm (see Box on Distinguishing Characteristics of Traditional and Intensified Coffee Production Technologies).

C. A spectrum of management types: from forest to open field

Conditions in the real world are more complicated than a strict dichotomy of "traditional" versus "modern" or "shade" versus "sun" coffee. Many examples of both these management systems exist across the coffee landscape of Latin America. In practice, however, they represent the extreme ends of a continuum of intensification within the coffee sector, and, as with any continuum, plenty of examples fall between the two extremes. Many issues will influence the final appearance of the coffee holding, including conditions associated with geographical setting -- that is, factors such as topography, ecological zone, and rainfall. The collective knowledge of a region's coffee growers, and the social and political interactions among the producers, will also shape a particular area's general management style. Likewise, institutions can affect where along the continuum coffee holdings in a particular zone may fit (see following section). Of course, an individual grower's own assessment of how to manage a coffee farm plays a central role in the final outcome of its appearance. This often involves inter-generational communication of knowledge. Fieldwork reveals that many growers manage their holdings in a way taught them by their fathers, uncles, or grand-fathers. Whatever the various factors, the reality of the coffee landscape across much of Latin America is one of diverse management styles.

One categorization of these management styles that serves as a starting point for understanding this "management spectrum" was devised years ago by some Mexican coffee researchers and technicians. It identifies five different management types, using shade levels and management as indicators for intensification. The less shade there is, the more intensified the production system. Implied in the scheme is a tendency to be more dependent upon the market, and less inclined to produce a variety of commodities for household use, as a holding is more intensified or industrialized.

"Rustic coffee" displays the least intensified management system, which is characterized by the coffee plants being inserted into the existing forest with little or no alteration of the native, already-present vegetation. Production under these conditions is destined for the market, but little time and less capital is invested in realizing this production. The "traditional polyculture" holding mimics the rustic coffee in structure, but the species diversity can be much greater because of the deliberate planting of other plants valuable to the household. Yields in "commercial polyculture" systems are usually higher than those found in the less-intensified holdings, but commercial polycultures also include several non-coffee products that provide food and/or income for the grower. A "reduced" or "specialized shade" system normally displays a single canopy species (e.g., genera such as Inga, Erythrina, Gliricidia, Grevillea), the maintenance of which is highly controlled, giving an overall manicured appearance. This distinctive system often has a laminar look to the shade layer, and is in effect a two- or three-species agricultural system (the coffee plus the one or two shade species). Finally, there is the "open-sun" management practice, which eliminates the overstory completely. This system resembles tightly packed hedgerows, is highly productive if given the requisite chemical inputs, and is, like the reduced shade system, oriented solely to producing coffee for the market.

D. The role of institutions

The transformation of traditional coffee into a more intensive production system has a host of proponents. In Mexico, the now-defunct Instituto Mexicano del Café (INMECAFE) advocated the adoption of industrial practices during the 1970s and 1980s. Nationally, the impact of this institution's attempt to technify the coffee sector has not succeeded as other institutional forces have in other countries. Still, in areas like eastern Chiapas, the modernization program carried out by INMECAFE coincided spatially with areas of recent social upheaval.

Colombia presents a good example of the degree to which a well-organized national institution can implement a policy it deems necessary. A key institution is the Colombian National Coffee Growers' Federation, known as "FEDERACAFE." As part of a strategy to increase production and to revamp the Colombian coffee industry, FEDERACAFE advocated the technification of production. The experience of coffee growers in the community of El Palmar illustrates the organization's role in the process. Located in the southwestern Andes in Colombia's department of Valle de Cauca, growers in El Palmar received the full attention of the Federation's efforts designed to allow Colombia to take advantage of the high international coffee prices that were hiked up after the Brazilian coffee frosts of 1973 and 1975. The technification efforts included the use of the high-yielding variety caturra, the reduction of shade cover, and the intensification of agrochemical use.^[24]

El Palmar is only one example. Whereas twenty-five years ago, the majority of Colombia's area and production was associated with traditional systems, today 755,000 hectares of the country's total 1,104,000 hectares (2,728,000 acres) of coffee (68 percent) are technified. With modern farms capable of producing more coffee per unit area, the actual production on the technified area accounts for 86 percent of Colombia's total coffee produced. In years of high international coffee prices, Colombia uses upward of 400,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizers in coffee production.^[25]

Aside from national institutions, international aid programs have also played a part in the industrial transformation of the coffee sector in northern Latin America. Most notable is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which, for a 15-20 year period beginning in the early to mid-1970s, instituted a series of projects aimed at increasing production for the small coffee producer in several countries of Central America and the Caribbean. USAID's strategy for bringing more capital to the rural sector has involved technology transfer to small growers. The technology being transferred has normally entailed a more industrial approach to production, including shade reduction and heavy chemical inputs. During this coffee technification period, the total cost of USAID projects in the region totalled about $80 million. There are still USAID projects aimed at coffee growers in El Salvador, Haiti and Guatemala.

Some recent and pending USAID funding will be directed to environmentally sound coffee production via the development of market connections in some of the region's "smaller economies." This new hemispheric-scale project with $10 million to spend on free market support mechanisms will supposedly target small coffee producers in small coffee producing countries. One of the emphases will be fostering organic coffee markets for producers in Latin America and the Caribbean.^[26] The agency's El Salvador project has a strong environmental component, with organic coffee production playing a strategic role in capturing specialized markets (see Box on Supporting Sustainable Coffee at the Local Level).

E. Redefining "modern" coffee production

The changes occurring in coffee production technology are part and parcel of the general trend in world agriculture characterized by a progression toward evermore intensive practices. Since agriculture's beginnings, and especially since the advent of the industrial revolution, a relentless march within agriculture has continually refined, reshaped and sometimes remade farming and crop cultivation in the image of industry. Parts of the production process in a host of crops around the world have changed significantly over the past two or three centuries, giving rise to completely new cultivars, hybrid varieties, labor regimes, chemical inputs, and, ultimately, foods upon our tables.

These changes, as well as many others, increase the efficiency and volume of production, similar to parallel technological introductions in the industrial sector. They are part of a concept of "modernization" that has proceeded in agriculture without sufficient regard to environmental consequences. Topsoil loss on erosion-prone croplands, pesticide poisoning of workers and the groundwater supply, huge increases in energy costs to bring one bushel of corn to the grain exchange, and an ever-increasing number of resistant insect pests appearing on the scene are just some of the problems facing industrial agriculture at the close of the twentieth century.

For the issue at hand -- the transformation of coffee production -- perhaps our task is to redefine "modern." While modern generally refers to the latest version or method associated with some phenomenon, the concept is incomplete without a component that reflects today's environmental challenges. This implies a commitment to using and understanding the best knowledge available to get something done in such a way as to minimize the impact upon the land. There are plenty of industrialized aspects of agriculture that can be used wisely in production. At the same time, there is a mountain of information that can be gleaned from generations of producers who have made it their everyday business (indeed, their survival strategy) to produce in such a way as to minimize risk and protect the land they use.

For coffee production, there are generations of knowledge collectively housed in the cultures of northern Latin America based on lifetimes of practical applied work. The traditional coffee system and the knowledge base associated with it is a veritable library of successful cultural practices. It is these practices that should be examined and tested for their present-day applicability and compatibility with more recent techniques. Being modern, in short, should incorporate the best knowledge from whatever system -- old or new, "folk" or "scientific" -- that preserves the productive base upon which longterm production depends. Hence, a truly "modern" production system can be regarded as one that benefits the grower with sustained yields and lowered costs over the long run, while at the same time maintaining or enhancing biodiversity, as well as protecting the land from erosion, chemical contamination, and the inhibition of natural nutrient cycling.

Decisions about what technologies are ultimately used, as well as how best to insert oneself into the increasingly complex international marketplace, must obviously be made by those producing coffee. There is an urgent need to create the conditions in which social, political and economic structures allow such decisions, and provide growers with a wide range of knowledge upon which to base these decisions.

Notes

17. E. Otero, 1984 An effort to control and possibly eradicate coffee rust in Nicaragua In Robert H. Fulton (ed) Coffee Rust in the Americas (American Phytopathological Society: St. Paul, MN) pp. 93-104.

18. Eduardo Somarriba, 1990 Sustainable timber production from uneven-aged shade stands of Cordia alliodora in small coffee farms, Agroforestry Systems 10:253-263.

19. Robert A. Rice, 1990 Transforming Agriculture: The Case of Coffee Leaf Rust and Coffee Renovation in Southern Nicaragua (PhD Dissertation, Geography Dept., University of California, Berkeley).

20. Carolyn Hall, 1985 Costa Rica: A Geographical Interpretation in Historical Perspective (Westview Press Dellplain Latin American Studies, No. 17:Boulder, CO) p. 160.

21. Eduardo Escalante, 1995 Coffee and agroforestry in Venezuela, Agroforestry Today (July-December):5-7.

22. An initial attempt to modernize the coffee sector failed in the 1950s.

23. Gordon Wrigley, 1988 Coffee (New York: Longman Scientific and Technical) p. 403. Moreover, the very traits that make it so attractive economically--its high-yielding and precocious bearing characteristics--caturra tends to overbear and die back easily, an associated trait that leads to plantation replacement every 12 to 15 years. In a region like northern Latin America, where coffee lands often are found associated with broken terrain, easily erodible soils, and high rainfall, frequent replacement of the coffee plants can exacerbate soil erosion.

24. Nola Reinhardt, 1993 Modernizing peasant agriculture: lessons from El Palmar, Colombia In William Glade and Charles A. Reilly (eds) Inquire at the Grassroots (Washington, DC: Inter-American Foundation) pp. 213-249.

25. Colombia Coffee Federation, Personal communication by telephone, mail and fax with Mr. Eduardo Libreros D., Executive Vice-President of the New York office, September 29, 1995.

26. Donald Drga, Assistant to the Director of Latin America and Caribbean office of Agency for International Development, personal communication, November, 1995.