Climate Change Drives Coffee Farmers to Higher Elevations

Climate Change Drives
Coffee Farmers to
Higher Elevations
By
www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org

http://buyorganiccoffee.org/1988/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.

elevations/
Part of this is because of
coffee leaf rust which thrives
at lower altitudes.

elevations/
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.

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This problem is not limited to
Colombia as climate change
drives coffee farmers to
higher elevations.

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At the Source of Coffee

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Ethiopia is the region where
coffee first grew wild is a
major coffee producer.

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It ranks number five after
Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia
and Indonesia.

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Ethiopia has the same
problem as Colombia with its
Arabica coffee which makes
up a fourth of its production.

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Modern Farmer discusses
how coffee is among the first
crops to be affected by
climate change.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Coffee farmers will keep
moving up the slopes so long
as there is room to plant and
the necessary water.

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But eventually coffee farmers
may need to move north or
south instead of up.

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We mentioned that when we
wrote about climate change
resistant coffee.

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Year after year
meteorologists report that
average global temperatures
have hit another high for the
modern era.

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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.

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But what would extreme
climate change do to coffee
production? Last year we
asked if climate change
could destroy coffee
production.

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Higher temperatures, more
chaotic weather patterns,
droughts and floods we
become the norm as the
world climate change,
according to experts.

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The Tech Times writes about
the effect of climate change
on agriculture.

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Paleontologists have
unearthed fossils of
dinosaurs and palm trees in
the extreme north and south.

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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.

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To the degree that plan
breeding helps countries like
Colombia can develop
Arabica hybrids that are more
disease resistant but still
flavorful.

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What is clear is that the
production of coffee will
become more difficult and
quality may suffer as things
heat up over the years.

Climate Change Drives Coffee Farmers to Higher Elevations

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Climate Change Drives Coffee Farmers to Higher Elevations