This study examines the impact of loan officer characteristics on repayment rates of microfinance borrowers in Mexico applying multilevel analyses, with special attention to the impact of the gender of the loan officer on default rates. The results strongly suggest that loan officers play a crucial role in improving repayment rates in microfinance and that male loan officers are better able to induce borrowers to repay than female loan officers. This may be because men exert authority over women and face fewer problems working late, travelling through unsafe places, and combining a position as counsellor with enforcing repayment.

This study investigates what factors relate to the coffee farmer’s cooperative affiliation decision and whether this decision impacts the farmer’s cash holdings. First, we propose a cooperative affiliation model based on transaction cost economics theory. There is a lack of consensus in the literature on what factors explain the farmer’s cooperative affiliation decision in the coffee sector. Overall, we find that the more specialized coffee farmers are, the more likely they will become cooperative affiliates. This is consistent with transaction cost economics predicting that cooperatives are business structures that can reduce transaction costs and safeguard specialized assets from opportunistic behavior. Specifically, logit regression models suggest that shade-grown coffee plantations, off-farm income, coffee farming experience, low-level market competition, farmland size, altitude, and private farmland are statistically related to the farmer’s decision to affiliate with cooperatives. Results on farmland size and shade-grown coffee plantations can be particularly relevant for scholars, policymakers, cooperative leaders, and extension professionals in the region. Second, based on the affiliation model, we employ propensity score matching to evaluate the impact of the farmer’s cooperative affiliation decision on cash holdings, particularly on cash shortness. It is often claimed that farmers do not affiliate with cooperatives because these organizations cannot pay them in full at harvest and coffee collection time. It is believed that cooperatives’ inability to pay farmers early increases the likelihood of farmers’ cash shortness and their need for additional financing to operate or cover household needs. However, this study finds no evidence that the affiliation decision is related to the likelihood of the farmer experiencing cash shortness around harvesting and selling time.

The Mexican tomato landraces ‘Campeche’, ‘Oaxaca’, ‘Puebla’, and ‘Veracruz’, and the commercial hybrid ‘Vengador’ were evaluated in response to four levels of NaCl (0, 30, 60 and 90 mM) applied through the nutrient solution in a hydroponic system under greenhouse conditions. Yield and dry biomass weight of roots, stems and leaves were reduced by increasing salinity stress, while fruit quality characteristics were improved, with the magnitude of the changes being genotype-dependent. The landrace ‘Veracruz’ produced the lowest yield, 1.06 t ha-1 under control conditions and 0.59 t ha-1 when treated with 90 mM NaCl, amounting to a 44% reduction that was, however, the lowest yield decrease among all genotypes tested. Paradoxically, ‘Veracruz’ was the only landrace displaying a reduction in the root/shoot ratio when exposed to high salinity, indicating more sensitivity to salinity as compared to the other landraces and the hybrid tested. ‘Campeche’ performed the poorest in response to salinity with the most pronounced yield reductions, recording 71.1%, 80.1% and 89.6% yield decreases when comparing plants exposed to 30, 60 and 90 mM to the control, respectively. Although at each salinity level the ‘Veracruz’ fruits showed the highest °Brix value as compared to the other landraces and the hybrid, ‘Oaxaca’ and ‘Puebla’ fruits had a greater increase in °Brix between the control and 90 mM NaCl (109.2% and 110.4%, respectively). With 90 mM NaCl, ‘Oaxaca’ fruits also registered the highest decrease in pH (6.1%) and the highest increase in total soluble sugars (106.7%) with respect to the control.

This study models the purchasing behavior of specialty coffee by 114 coffee shops across 15 cities in nine states in Mexico. Simple and multilevel mixed-effects logistic models are tested. Our models extend the framework used in prior research. We model the purchase of specialty coffee as a function of: (a) material attributes, (b) symbolic attributes, (c) coffee shop characteristics, (d) profile of the coffee shop’s owner, and (e) socio-economic variables of the cities where the coffee shops were located. Overall, our results are consistent with expectations developed from the coffee literature. That is, the likelihood of purchasing specialty coffee increases when: coffee’s aroma drives the purchase, coffee purchased is from the state of Oaxaca, the coffee shop has a value-added business model, the coffee shop is diversified selling both ground coffee and coffee drinks, the coffee shop owner’s knowledge on coffee supply chain activities is high, and the coffee shop is located in a city with a higher education index. In contrast, the likelihood of purchasing specialty coffee decreases when a coffee professional tastes the coffee before the purchase, when coffee shops are not given the opportunity to roast their own coffee, and in coffee shops located in larger cities. Overall, our research suggests that the specialty coffee niche in Mexico has some elements required for this segment to transition from a supply chain approach to a value-based supply chain approach. This might be particularly beneficial for smallholder coffee growers, who despite several constraints contribute to the sustainability of coffee supply chains.