Celebrated Kenyan Coffee Faces Existential Threat – CoffeeTalk

In the lush, volcanic highlands of Komothai in central Kenya, farmers like Simon Macharia produce coffee on small plantations scattered across the hillsides. The crop has been part of these lush highlands since the late 1890s, when British colonial settlers introduced it. Now, the area is famous for its unique, top-rated coffee. Growing the berries is labour intensive, with picking, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilizing, and transporting the products.

The price of a single cup of coffee in a chic European café, typically $4 (£3.20), highlights a stark disparity when compared to the earnings of many Kenyan coffee laborers, who make at most $2.30 a day. The daily wage of most Kenyan coffee workers is less than the price of a cup of coffee in Europe. Farmers feel the trading system between Kenya and Europe – the world’s largest coffee market – has been stacked against them for many years. But now, a new threat looms, jeopardising farmers’ ability to make a living – climate change.

Coffee trees are extremely sensitive to small differences in temperature and weather conditions. They also need specific climatic conditions like humid temperatures and ample rainfall to grow. Climate change is a major challenge for our coffee farmers,” says John Murigi, the chairman of the Komothai Coffee Society, which represents 8,000 coffee farmers like Mr. Macharia.

Cold temperatures and erratic rainfall are having a devastating impact on the delicate coffee plants, leading to decreased coffee production over the last few years. He added that climate change was intensifying the spread of diseases in coffee plants. There had been a significant increase in coffee leaf miners, bugs that feed on coffee leaves, and coffee berry disease, a destructive fungal infection that can wipe out more than 80% of crops. To deal with the increasing outbreaks, farmers are resorting to using herbicides and insecticides that can damage soil quality in the long term and also pose health risks.

To produce a single cup of coffee, up to 140 litres of water can be required, including the water to grow the plants. Higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns mean a decreasing water supply for coffee farmers in Kiambu County. Farmer Joseph Kimani told the BBC that the “river levels have gone down a lot” due to erratic weather, such as periods of drought and heavy rains.

Coffee can only be grown in the “coffee belt” – tropical regions around the world in areas typically located at an altitude of between 1,000m and 2,000m. In recent years, climate change has led to a shortage of global coffee supplies and an increase in the price of coffee due to drought and crop failures in several key coffee-producing nations such as Brazil and Vietnam. A survey by the Fairtrade Foundation found that 93% of Kenyan coffee farmers are already experiencing the effects of climate change.

To protect the industry, coffee farmers in areas like Komothai are experimenting with climate adaptation techniques, such as planting trees to provide extra shade for the coffee plants. Mr. Murigi said it is only through addressing both the climate and economic challenges faced by Kenyan coffee farmers that they can have a sustainable future.

Read More @ BBC