From July 10th to 13th, the PACSMAC team participated in the EADI CEsA General Conference 2023: Towards New Rhythms of Development. Each work package presented a panel on its current research related to climate change and coffee value chain. It was an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with other researchers and to bring part of the team together in Lisbon for a few days.
The members of Work Package 1 led a panel on climate change and the restructuring of agricultural value chains in the Global South. Dr. Janina Grabs presented the top-down approach, while Dr. Adugna Bekele and Daniel Mwalutolo developed the bottom-up approach from the perspective of each country.
The members of Work Package 2 held a panel on the implications of the Future Climate Scenarios on Arabica Coffee Production. Ng’winamila Kasongi and Melkamu Mamuye presented their analysis based on a landscape approach from the perspective of Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Here is the description of the seed panels (also available on this link):
Global environmental change threatens smallholder livelihoods across the Global South, especially for crops that are sensitive to temperature and precipitation change. Global warming may reduce yields, shrink optimal growing areas, and foment more frequent and widespread pest and disease outbreaks. Impoverished farmers have limited capacity to adapt to climate-related challenges, so these impacts are likely to further entrench them in poverty cycles. Downstream, global buyers for agricultural commodities worry that declining production volumes may threaten their present investments. Anticipating these risks, various actors along agricultural value chains, such as farmers, government agencies, processors, traders, and development-focused NGOs, are experimenting with adaptation and mitigation innovations. These include new cultivars, climate-smart farming techniques and new land-use strategies. These experiments’ success, side effects, and benefits, however, will depend on how the entire value chain responds. Historically, agricultural value chains in the global South have featured substantial power asymmetries, which facilitated extractivist business practices, with the lion’s share of economic benefits accruing in the Global North. These power asymmetries could cause climate adaptation and mitigation innovations to produce paradoxical results. On the one hand, climate-smart agriculture could facilitate upgrading – helping some farmers differentiate themselves and more added value or better market access. On the other, adaptation and mitigation programs could make smallholders even more dependent on lead firms for inputs, expertise and market connections. To date, little empirical work has been done that would help stakeholders anticipate and address such paradoxical outcomes. For this seed panel, we seek contributions that illustrate recent research and/or set future research agendas linking climate change to transformations in farming practices, business strategies, and stakeholder relationships along agricultural value chains.