Blog Machine vision — technofix or smallholder solution for deforestation-free coffee?
Many regulations on food production aim to increase the sustainability of value chains. However, as illustrated in the case of the EU regulation on deforestation-free supply chains (EUDR), due to compliance procedures these well-intentioned policies can unintentionally discriminate against smallholder farmers, even though many of them adopt lower-impact traditional farming practices. How does this happen, and how is the Alliance leveraging the latest digital innovation to ensure value chain inclusivity? Discover the example of addressing the constraints of smallholder coffee farmers with machine vision.
To fulfil the EUDR criteria, coffee importers must conduct a deforestation-risk analysis using plot geolocation and satellite data of forests. However, many smallholder farmers – who produce a large amount of coffee for the global market – often farm in remote locations that cannot be reliably detected by these technologies. Whilst their farming methods are often far healthier for local ecosystems than mainstream practices, satellites may qualify these as forests rather than plantations, due to the sustainable agroforestry practices that they often use, putting them at risk of having their coffee rejected at the EU border.
Coffee landscape in Uganda (left); coffee sorting as a family task in Uganda (right) (Images: HRNS).
At the Alliance, we are investigating how modern information devices may allow a smallholder-inclusive implementation of the EUDR, using machine vision to ensure that sustainability regulations work for farmers of all scales.
Illustration of the coffee value chain in Uganda. Compliance with EUDR rules will be a challenge for millions of smallholders (Source: Christian Bunn, CIAT).
