Authors: Anusha Chaudhary and Dr. Krithi K. Karanth
This is the first article is from our two-part series called “Wildlife Friendly Production Landscapes”.
Farm-scale tree species diversity in the Western Ghats is a key structural condition explaining the richness of biodiversity. The coffee farms nestled in Karnataka’s Western Ghats have been well-documented as a hub of faunal biodiversity.
Agroforestry systems such as coffee farms have been shown to support incredible biodiversity including mammals, birds, butterflies and amphibians. The diversity of wildlife found on a farm has been associated with farming practices. This in turn has been influenced by socio-economic conditions of the farmer, trees and crops grown along with coffee, crop prices and subsidies, etc. In southern India, arabica coffee has been observed to have a denser canopy than robusta varieties. The choice of coffee variety depends on labor price and availability and use of pesticides/herbicides. The scale of production of these varieties is based on political and economic forces at the regional and international scales. Transportation networks and institutions or laws like price supports or producer cooperatives have an impact on these preferences too. This reinforces that complex agroforests may perform as better habitats to host rich biodiversity than simplified ones. It has also been observed that at the landscape level, proximity to natural forests increases the productivity of these farms through pollination, pest control, and other ecosystem services. These local decisions made by farmers cause habitat modifications which directly affects animals found on a farm. Many forest-dependent and endemic species have been found in these arabica and robusta cultivating agroforests. Therefore, these farms act as a supplementary habitat in small protected areas embedded in human-use landscapes.
A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Centre for Wildlife Studies, and Indian School of Business conducted surveys with 344 coffee farm owners across three districts in Karnataka. The farm owners included 113 growers of arabica coffee, 135 growers of robusta coffee and 96 farmers growing both varieties. The survey assessed the household conditions, socioeconomic aspects, farm size, yield, tree species grown, crop varieties planted, shade management and use of chemical inputs. The study assessed the significance of tree species diversity and the impact of specific tree found in coffee farms
Fig 1. A typical coffee canopy in Karnataka, India
Results suggest that the number and types of trees and the type of coffee cultivated, vary a lot across sampled farms. The authors identified 21 tree species of which five were more likely to be present on farms containing arabica coffee or with a combination with robusta coffee. It was also observed that the total area of the farm was dependent on tree diversity and the size of the farm. The cultivation of arabica coffee was found to positively influence the presence of tree diversity. The study also revealed that larger farms ( >200 ha) are more commonly associated with arabica coffee production.
Scientists reported that these coffee landscapes are more laborious, in terms of weeding, coppicing, and growth management demands. Farmers who manage land as small as 5 ha or less, are less likely to maintain a permanent labor force or to use chemical inputs. They usually manage trees and weeds by themselves and may be dependent on family labor. Authors summarised that large farms, arabica-growing farms and an increase in canopy affect high labor and pesticide demands.
Fig 2. Farmer assessing coffee beans
Coffee farms have higher proportions and levels of native trees. This study provided key insights into farmer associated management within labour-constrained agroforestry systems. Steeply inclining rural wages, increase in urbanization, labor migration, and overall demographic transition in the region are responsible for the decline in the agricultural workforce. Apart from key ecological factors associated with farm size, tree species diversity or type of coffee cultivated, the current study also highlighted emerging socio-economic concerns. These will not only affect the faunal diversity around them but largely influence the farmers from earning the profits to meeting market demands.
Original Research Article: Coffee, Trees, and Labor: Political Economy of Biodiversity in Commodity Agroforests– Paul Robbins, Vaishnavi Tripuraneni, Krithi K. Karanth & Ashwini Chhatre (Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2020)
You can access the original article here.
