Coffee Agroecosystems in Puerto Rico: Trends in Management Practices, Climate Change Resilience, and Farm-size/Productivity Relationships in Coffee Farms in Puerto Rico

Agriculture, especially that employing agroforestry practices, provides food, materials, and income to people, while influencing the flora, fauna and ecosystem functions that are the source of life on Earth. Based on the environmental conditions and practices employed, farms vary in how much they support people and the environment. To better understand this relationship, this practicum focuses on reviewing agricultural census data and global climate data to see how management practices (shade or sun-grown coffee), farm size, temperature, and precipitation influence yield in the coffee agroecosystems of Puerto Rico. The results from this study present only a partial picture, and should be supplemented by studies on ecosystems services, impacts on farmer’s livelihoods, and biodiversity. We find that coffee agriculture in Puerto Rico is declining in total land area and total production. Sun-farms are generally larger than shade-farms and make up a greater proportion of farmland. Sun and shade farms do not differ in their total yield, defined as kilograms per area planted, however, shade farms do generally harvest a greater proportion of their total farm. The yield of sun and shade farms shows a positive linear relationship with total annual precipitation, and an insignificant negative linear relationship with average annual temperature and these were not influenced by cultivation methods. Of the variables we assessed, farm size and total annual precipitation are the strongest predictors of coffee yield in Puerto Rico. Both shade and sun farms show partial evidence of a positive polynomial relationship between farm size and yield.Master of Science (MS)School for Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/177518/1/Brown_Carson_Practicum.pd