Climate Change Drives Coffee Farmers to Higher Elevations

In the coffee growing region of Colombia they grow varieties like Caturra at lower altitudes around 3,000 to 5,000 while Arabica grows best in the 5,000 feet and above range. Part of this is because of coffee leaf rust which thrives at lower altitudes. As temperatures have risen on the mountainsides of Colombia, Arabica is being planted higher and higher while left rust resistant Caturra replaces it in the low and middle altitudes. This problem is not limited to Colombia as climate change drives coffee farmers to higher elevations.

At the Source of Coffee

Ethiopia is the region where coffee first grew wild is a major coffee producer. It ranks number five after Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia. Ethiopia has the same problem as Colombia with its Arabica coffee which makes up a fourth of its production. Modern Farmer discusses how coffee is among the first crops to be affected by climate change.

Coffee among the First Crops to Feel the Effect of Climate Change

It’s pretty alarming that this new study projects that between 39 and 59 percent of Ethiopia’s coffee-growing land will be unsuitable for coffee shrubs by the end of the century. And there are signs to indicate the country is well on its way to that disastrous future; huge droughts have swept through Ethiopia in the past few years, putting the entire country’s ability to feed itself at risk.

The problem when it heats up is that it also can get very dry and the combination of heat and drought in an area like Ethiopia which has an arid climate anyway can be devastating. Coffee farmers will keep moving up the slopes so long as there is room to plant and the necessary water. But eventually coffee farmers may need to move north or south instead of up. We mentioned that when we wrote about climate change resistant coffee.

Year after year meteorologists report that average global temperatures have hit another high for the modern era. Considering that what is today the frozen arctic once supported palm trees we have wondered if growing coffee on the arctic tundra will one day be possible. But what would extreme climate change do to coffee production? Last year we asked if climate change could destroy coffee production.

Higher temperatures, more chaotic weather patterns, droughts and floods we become the norm as the world climate change, according to experts. The Tech Times writes about the effect of climate change on agriculture.

Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of dinosaurs and palm trees in the extreme north and south. For the time being coffee farmers plant their Arabica higher and higher up the mountain and many make do with hardy but lower quality Robusta in the lower altitudes. To the degree that plan breeding helps countries like Colombia can develop Arabica hybrids that are more disease resistant but still flavorful. What is clear is that the production of coffee will become more difficult and quality may suffer as things heat up over the years.




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