The islands of Sulawesi and Flores are among the key Arabica coffee producing regions of Indonesia. In this paper, Hartatri et al. explore the effect of livelihood strategies on decision making processes of smallholder coffee farmers in South Sulawesi and Flores and how they affect farmer engagement with the growing specialty coffee market. The author's assumption is that the way coffee production is inserted within social and agro-ecological systems will affect the willingness of farmers to engage in quality upgrading initiatives. The research uses data gathered from interviews with 803 smallholder households engaged in coffee production in six districts. Preliminary findings show that there are different roles of coffee in smallholder farmers' livelihood strategies across the region. They also suggest that income from coffee is highly variable. The findings indicate a need to tailor interventions that consider varying smallholder farmers' livelihood strategies in order for smallholder farmers to fully benefit from the upgrading of coffee quality in value chains.