Fatores determinantes da adoção de certificações socioambientais em propriedades cafeeiras

Abstract

The coffee growing is a major agricultural activities in Brazil, with the Minas Gerais State being responsible for about 50% of the national harvest. The coffee activity generates income for many farmers families, mostly small landowners. For this reason, it is important to monitor sector trends for the activity to remain competitive. In the last two decades, one of the main trends are the production and certified coffees consumption. Certification is granted by non-governmental organizations to producers that comply with certain social and environmental standards. As benefits, it guarantees access to new markets, higher prices and better utilization of productive resources. Therefore, is of great interest to study the factors which make the coffee growers fittest to adopt the certification, with the main objective of the study to identify these factors. The survey was conducted with 144 coffee farmers in South of Minas Gerais, divided equally between certified and uncertified. The results show that some characteristics of coffee growers and of the property increase the probability of certification adoption. The age and participation of coffee growers in courses and events, participation in the coffee family income, the level of crop productivity and use of information on the property had significant and positive results to explain the certification use. These results extend the existing knowledge about the certifications of coffee growing and can guide actions to expand the number of certified producers.