Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) technology for coffee on small farms globally, with a specific emphasis on post-conflict Colombia as an example application. Agricultural and rural development in Colombia have been severely affected by civil conflict. Consequently, access to improved technologies in small-scale Colombian agriculture has been limited while key resources were allocated to conflict and illicit crop production. The reopening of the Colombian countryside after the 2016 peace accords facilitates adoption of new agricultural methods and reduced reliance on violence and illicit crops. This study assesses the economic feasibility of farm-level green coffee storage using the farm decision linear programming model developed as part of the Orinoquía Initiative (Orinoquía 2017) by Sanders and Carillo Rozo (2018) specifically for the Piedemonte zone of the Orinoquía region. Two versions of the PICS technology are evaluated, considering historical seasonal price patterns, and the sensitivity of the solution to key parameters is evaluated.