Climate change is a real threat to coffee-growing communities

We have come to rely on the cycles of nature. We sow. We reap. We know when to expect the rainy season, the dry season, when to plant and how much to expect at harvest.

We have also grown accustomed to taking advantage of our planet. Between emissions, oil spills, overflowing landfills, and countless other ways that we have failed to care for the land that has provided us with so much, we are facing, as we all know, a climate catastrophe.

This becomes frighteningly apparent when we see what is happening in coffee-growing regions throughout Latin America.

In the past few weeks Mexico and Central America have suffered massive flooding, mudslides, tropical storms and hurricanes. There are hundreds of thousands of victims who have lost everything. There are entire towns under water. There are numerous coffee crops that have been lost. And this is just the beginning.

The fluctuations between high-rainfall La Niña years and low-rainfall El Niño years have brought on extreme highs and lows in coffee production, thus creating a very volatile market.

According to Dr. Jeremy Haggar, coordinator of the Coffee Group, studies showing the impact of climate change on coffee-growing regions in the state of Veracruz have documented a steady rise in temperature and a steady decrease in rainfall. If we take the statistics accumulated over 40 years and project them to 2020, we find that coffee production could decrease by 34 percent. This means that coffee farmers who currently earn around $200 per acre would earn around $20 per acre.

Groups, such as CECOCAFEN in Nicaragua, have replanted abandoned fields in an effort to replenish coffee plantations. This can be a high-risk investment precisely because of the unpredictable climate. That being said, it is clear that technical assistance and supplemental income are needed to foster sustainability in vulnerable coffee-growing regions.

In Oaxaca, CAMPO reports that one-third of all municipalities have been affected by the intense rains, resulting in mudslides, collapsed bridges, blocked highways and lost crops. While the coffee-growing regions are not as affected by the flooding as lower regions, intense rains significantly soften the earth, causing mudslides that take with them homes, livestock and entire crops. It is currently very difficult to reach these communities and to be able to quantify the damage.

Coffee Kids’ partner ICSUR in Chiapas has also commented on the state of the coffee-growing regions where they work. The dams in Chiapas have reached their limit and are in danger of breaking. It is estimated that as much as 70 percent of their coffee crop may have been lost.

Both CAMPO and ICSUR agree that food scarcity, bacterial infections, loss of livestock and significant loss in coffee production are very real threats. Both groups have commented that they are deeply concerned about climate change and its effect on the long-term health of coffee-growing communities.

We are working closely with our partners to determine how best to prepare coffee-growing communities for the climatic challenges ahead. Now is the time to act.