Author Description

We conducted a cost of production study through farmer interviews to determine the costs, revenue and net benefits of farming coffee in Pacto, Ecuador in a standard year of production. Farmer interviews also included questions about agronomic challenges farmers face. Secondly, I performed a literature review of how cost of production studies have been shaped by the political economy of the coffee sector - particularly by the power relations between institutions within the coffee sector. I also consider the subjective decisions researchers must make in the design, data collection, analysis, and publication of cost studies, and how these have been shaped by the political economy of the coffee sector. Our results indicated that farmers are losing money by producing coffee in Pacto, Ecuador. Results showed farmers are earning negative net benefits from coffee production in Ecuador, particularly when family labor is valued. Farmers also earned net negative equivalent daily wages from coffee production. Coffee farmers reported struggling with challenges related to lack of extension, pests and diseases, and environmental degradation. Further research is needed to determine if farmers and other stakeholders should continue investing in coffee production, or if other livelihoods might be more appropriate for farmers in this region. Cost studies could benefit from increased transparency of the subjective decisions researchers make during the design and implementation, in order to help standardize and compare methodologies and results. Further research could also be conducted on how to increase the accuracy of farmer-reported data.