Opportunities for enhancing the climate resilience of coffee production through improved crop, soil and water management
Phoebe Bracken, Paul Burgess, Nicholas T. Girkin
Abstract
Climate change is adversely affecting coffee production, impacting both yields and quality. Coffee production is dominated by the cultivation of Arabica and Robusta coffee, species that represent 99% of production, but both will be affected by climate change. Sustainable management practices that can enhance the resilience of production and livelihoods to climate change are urgently needed as production supports the livelihoods of over 25 million people globally, the majority of whom are smallholder farmers located in the coffee belt spanning the tropics. These communities are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. We conducted a systematic review, identifying 80 studies that describe the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on coffee agroecosystems, or that identify agroecological practices with the potential to enhance climate resilience. Adverse environmental impacts include a reduction in area suitable for production, lower yields, increased intensity and frequency of extreme climate events, and greater incidence of pests and diseases. Potential environmental solutions include altitudinal shifts, new, resilient cultivars, altering agrochemical inputs, and agroforestry. However, financial, environmental and technical constraints limit the availability of many of these approaches to farmers, particularly smallholder producers. There is therefore an urgent need to address these barriers through policy and market mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement to continue meeting the growing demand for coffee.