Establishing the initial benchmark for the sustainability of Arabica coffee-growing householders in a highland region, Brazil

David Brunelli Viçosi, Cecília Uliana Zandonadi, Victor dos Santos Rossi, Wesley Zambom da Silva, Fabiano Tristão Alixandre, Cesar Abel Krohling, Cleber Cássio Ferreira, Evaldo de Paula, Marx Bussular Martinuzzo, Douglas Gonzaga de Souza, Maurício Lorenção Fornazier, Lúcio Herzog De Muner, Ricardo Dias Alixandre, Higor Alixandre Macette, David dos Santos Martins, Luiz Fernando Favarato, Maurício José Fornazier, Rogério Carvalho Guarçoni

Coffea arabica, intervention actions, sloped areas, sustainability evaluation.

The production of specialty coffees is an important activity for farm incomes and should be encouraged. However, it is necessary that this process may respect the principles based on the economic, environmental, and social axes of sustainability. This research was carried out aiming to generate the initial benchmark of the sustainability of four farms in the municipality of Afonso Cláudio, State of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The System for Assessing Sustainability Standards for Coffee Growing in Espírito Santo, a tool in the format of an electronic spreadsheet, was used in order to quantify the scores of the different standards. The results showed a gap in the three axes with intervention needs mainly related to economical standards, followed by environmental, and social ones. The main interferences have been related to the quality of coffee beans management, costs and incomes of the farms, improvement in harvest and post-harvest processes, training in the use of manual machines, and the correct use of pesticides. Different intervention techniques will be offered to coffee-growers for intervention in the farms aiming to improve the level of their adequacy regarding the sustainability standards. However, the owner's family values, as well as their cultural and economic restrictions, must be respected. Thus, the results of farm adjustments must be achieved in different ways and at different times.

Received: 06 Mar 2022, Received in revised form: 26 Mar 2022, Accepted: 02 Apr 2022, Available online: 15 Apr 2022

10.22161/ijaers.94.7