The Global Coffee Crisis and Indian Farmers: The Livelihood Vulnerability of Smallholders

This paper examines the global coffee crisis that began in the late 1980s and its impact on local livelihoods for smallholding farmers in India. The coffee crisis is characterized by low farm-gate coffee prices caused by oversupply, an unregulated open market, and growing corporate concentration. Smallholding coffee farmers in India suffered severely during the recent crisis as they experienced lower yields, lower coffee prices, and weak market institutions. The impact of the coffee crisis is considered in terms of structural changes in the coffee market and rural institutions and the measures farmers have used to cope with market volatility.