Interlinked driving factors for decision-making in sustainable coffee production

The coffee sector, one of the top-traded commodity groups worldwide, seeks to overcome its sustainability challenges through different cultural and technical practices, including shaded-coffee plantations, common in Central America and recognized as an opportunity to overcome such challenges. However, there is limited literature explaining the elements that influence decision-making processes for sustainable coffee production; therefore, this study aimed at identifying and modeling the factors driving this sector toward decisions for sustainable coffee practices. The Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) method allowed to represent a comprehensive model of the factors. In addition, a case study of six shaded-coffee farms using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Life Cycle costing (E-LCC) provided a contextualized analysis. Main findings stress that the farm stage is the highest contributor to the cost and environmental impacts in green coffee production. Moreover, the model undertook outcomes of the LCA, E-LCC and literature reviews, detecting knowledge and costs as key driving factors for farmers’ decisions, followed by the certification schemes, policies and the cooperative system as elements that influence decisions. Emissions, biodiversity and climate change adaptation behave as linking factors, while the use of water resources is the most dependent factor. This research establishes a first model to understand and address the factors that influence how decisions are taken in small-coffee farms when moving toward more sustainable coffee production, opening opportunities for further research as well as improved and tailored policy interventions in similar contexts.