Certification programs have been employed in many agricultural products as a means to encourage and communicate compliance with standards associated with various attributes, such as organic, fair-trade, GMO free, and eco-friendly, among others. Such programs further seek to provide added value, through a price premium, to producers and supply chain actors associated with the label. In this paper, we review a number of global labeling and certification programs that could add value for coffee farms in India through the promotion of conservation and environmental protection. We provide results from a survey conducted on a sample of coffee farms in Coorg district, India, to assess their awareness and perceptions related toward certified coffee and environmental conservation in general. Survey results illustrate strong positive associations with the environment by coffee planters, particularly among certified and organic producers. However, price premiums for certified and organic coffee are relatively small. While the potential of conservation-oriented certification for coffee in Coorg could be relatively limited outside of a few individual-level niches, branding Coorg more generally as a conservation-oriented region could hold promise, leveraging and personalizing the uniqueness of the natural offerings from Coorg and tapping into burgeoning associations with place and region in India.

The adoption of effective coping strategies is crucial for successful adaptation to the impacts of climate change in the dairy sector. However, little attention has been paid to understanding the perceived constraints and motivations toward such strategies. A survey was conducted among 104 dairy farmers from three semi-arid regions of South India. The aim of the survey was to explore the dairy farmers’ perception of climate risk, how it impacts their dairy farming system, the coping strategies they employ, and the barriers they face when implementing these strategies. The survey also investigated the factors that facilitate the adoption of adaptation measures. The results indicate dairy farmers in the region perceive drought, pests and diseases, and high temperatures as the major risks associated with climate change, which has resulted in decreased dairy income, animal health problems, reduced fertility, and food intake problems for their cattle. In response to climate variability, dairy farmers have adopted various coping strategies. The most important strategies include buying livestock insurance, keeping low debt obligations, and growing drought-tolerant grass varieties. However, most farmers face significant constraints in adopting these and other strategies including a lack of climate forecast data, the high cost of adaptation activities, and weak institutional support. On the other hand, the key enabling factors that support the adoption of these strategies include milk production security, suitable feed growing conditions, and family interest. Most importantly, the study found that certain factors such as age, education, number of earning family members, annual milk production, monthly cattle expenses, and landholdings significantly influenced dairy farmers’ strategies for adapting to climate change. The study recommends that providing timely climate forecasts, implementing improved policies such as vaccination and cattle health services, and establishing strong institutional support systems can help dairy farmers become more resilient to climate change and protect their livelihoods.

Globally, increasing pesticide use and its intensity (kg/ha) has become a trend since the past two decades, while India figures among top users of only insecticides. India being a key global producer and supplier of various farm commodities, use of chemical pesticides is a matter of concern. Using the annual agricultural pesticide use data from 2012 to 2021 from secondary source, this paper has analyzed the spatial and temporal pattern in chemical and bio-pesticide use in the country. The study observed the northern and western states of India to be accounting for about 62% of total use, while the northern states in addition used it most intensively (>500g/ha). States with larger arable land viz., Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, used highest chemical pesticides in total. However, Jammu & Kashmir (3.64 kg/ha) followed by Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh (500-650 g/ha) used chemical pesticides more intensively. Different crops in different states may be responsible for higher and intensive pesticide use. Thus, individual state governments may have to identify crops and regions responsible for higher use intensity and thus address any adversary. Fungicides, which has surpassed insecticides to become most used pesticide group, has observed promising growth of 7 percent annually. Research & policy attention may be drawn in addressing the same. On the contrary, the Indian government mandating pesticide companies to produce and sell bio-pesticides seems to have positive results with more than 5 per cent annual growth in its use across the geographic zones of the country. Sustained governance can help reduce chemical use in agriculture and thus help improving soil organic matter and health.