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# Understanding the Struggles of Small Coffee Producers in Chiapas: A Systems Thinking Approach

## Details

**Authors** De la Rosa V

**Year** 2016

**Publisher** Cornell Policy Review

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Agriculture & Food

**Kind of engagement** applications

[Read it](https://www.cornellpolicyreview.com/understanding-the-struggles-of-small-coffee-producers-in-chiapas-a-systems-thinking-approach/)

## In authors' words

### Abstract

The history of coffee production in Chiapas, Mexico involves diverse circumstances faced by the small producers who occupy the area. Chiapas is mainly occupied by indigenous people, dedicated to the cultivation of coffee. Coffee production used to be a good source of income for the communities in the region, but drastic climate change, oversupply of coffee produce, and environmental factors, such as coffee seed diseases and strong plagues, have diminished the incomes of these communities. Coffee cultivation in Chiapas involves several factors that affect the well-being of this people, who often find themselves struggling to obtain income from cultivation. The coffee supply chain and how it affects farmers' coffee production and their well-being is explored in this paper, as well as the way systems thinking explicates the parts, systems, relationships and perspectives that frame the issue. The simple rules of systems thinking help identify the complexity of the problem. The issues surrounding coffee production create a vast interactive network, and applying systems thinking can help identify and organize the thinking process needed to address these issues. In sum, systems thinking challenges the current understanding of coffee production issues faced by small farmers in Chiapas and offers insight into a solution based on newly reorganized relationships between the actors influencing this market and their current inputs.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A Cornell Policy Review piece using systems thinking on the struggles of small, largely indigenous coffee producers in Chiapas, Mexico — climate change, oversupply, and crop disease squeezing incomes.

### What they found (results)

The issues form a vast interactive network; systems thinking challenges the current understanding of the problem and points to solutions built on reorganized relationships among the market's actors.

## Commentary

### In short

A student application of DSRP, from the Cornell Policy Review systems thinking special issues.

**Patterns it shows** R

**How to cite this** De la Rosa V (2016). Understanding the Struggles of Small Coffee Producers in Chiapas: A Systems Thinking Approach. Cornell Policy Review.