Sustainability in Conventional and Organic Coffee Farms (Coffea arabica L.) in the Valley of Alto Mayo, San Martin, Peru

This work evaluates the sustainability of farms producing conventional and organic coffee in the Alto Mayo Valley, San Martin Region, Peru. For the research, organic production farms were selected, belonging to the Fey Esperanza Valle del Alto Mayo Coffee Cooperative (CACFEVAM) and conventional production, belonging to the Association of Agricultural Producers El Emigrante (APAEM). The sample (n=56), was made up of 26 organic producers of CAFEVAM and 30 conventional producers of APAEM. For data collection we used surveys, which had questions related to the previously selected indicators, according to the MESMIS methodology. For a farm to be considered sustainable, the average of the 17 indicators must have a value equal to or greater than 5 (scale: 2 to 10). The results showed that organic coffee producing farms in the Alto Mayo Valley (San Martin), are more sustainable than those of conventional production. But there are "critical points" where it is necessary to work to increase sustainability and make it durable over time.