Evaluating the Impact of Adequate Agronomy with Emphasis in Crop Nutrition in the Poverty Alleviation of Coffee Growers in Northern Peru

The Jaen Valley in Northern Peru has many contrasts between the rice growers in the lowlands, which are very well organized and use sophisticated agronomy to obtain grain yields well above 7 t/ha. While not far from there, coffee growers in the hillsides often practice a slash-and-burn type of agriculture and they do not use agricultural inputs. We believe that this is the main reason why coffee yields are very low, despite several organizations in the region that advocate for "fair trade" coffee. Our project wants to measure the impact that proper fertilizer use has on human well-being of small farmers near the Jaen Valley.

About 1,185 coffee growers, distributed in 15 locations of northern Peru, were surveyed on several indicators of well-being and in the use of fertilizers or manures in their crops. Initially the site selection was meant to be an indicator of fertilizer use in the crop, but the results showed that neither the proximity to a village or city, nor the economic or educational status of the farmer alone were good indicators of the likelihood that he/she will use fertilizer in their crops. Instead we needed to separate the farmers into six different classes according to their fertilizer use: ranging from farmers that do not use any fertilizer at all (40% of the survey), to growers that use general coffee compound fertilizers (CCF) together with organic manures and with other foliar or specialized fertilizers (less than 5%).

A general equation for coffee yield was developed for the survey. This included the amount of CCF applied, the amount of bird guano (most common manure applied), the age of the coffee stand and the incidence of pests and diseases. Using this equation, a first approximation on the additional profit for the farmer was carried out. The results indicated that the CCF outperforms guano, as the profit for each Peruvian sol spent is about 200% with CCF while is only 110% with guano. Nonetheless the best results for CCF are observed with the farmers that apply both organic and synthetic nutrients.

Though the complete economic and social implications of use of fertilizers is still under study, we can conclude at this stage of the project that the use of CCF is a viable solution to improve the income of small coffee farmers with extremely low yields.