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As climate change brings warmer temperatures and more drought, Ethiopia's prized coffee production is under threat
Elias Gebreselbadie
HAMBELA, Ethiopia, June 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Few countries are taking coffee too The rising temperatures and worsening climate change-related drought are now hitting production – and fixing this situation could require the displacement of many Ethiopian coffee fields, say experts . Apart from its cultural value, coffee is Ethiopia's largest source of export earnings, worth more than $ 860 million in 2016-17. 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last three decades, according to the Forum on the Environment, Climate Change and Coffee (ECCCFF), an Ethiopian non-governmental organization.
This caused a greater drought and – since coffee is a sensitive crop at both humidity and temperature – worsening diseases affecting coffee berries.
As a result, thousands of hectares of coffee Every year, the country's government encourages farmers to grow coffee at higher altitudes – up to 3,200 meters According to Mrs. Birhanu Tsegaye, who heads extension services for coffee, tea and spices, the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Marketing Board (ECTDMA) could help mitigate the pressures on climate change. As temperatures rise, "even areas that were not (previously) suitable for growing coffee have become appropriate, which is an opportunity for co-industry."
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Aman Adinew, managing director of Metad Agricultural Development, which runs two large plantations in Oromia and southern India. The annual harvest, which normally takes place in November and December in its Hambela and Gedeb coffee plantations, was delayed for a month because the beans had not ripened. As the coffee beans were still green in early 2018 due to a shortage of rain, this delayed the processing and export of coffee, which meant breaking the contract with our northern producers American, Asian and American.
SMALL FARMS, BIG BUSINESS
About 90 percent of Ethiopian coffee growers are small farmers, and the industry directly and indirectly employs up to 20 percent of Ethiopia. 100 million inhabitants, according to the ECTDMA
Exports in the 2016-2017 production year totaled just over 220,000 tonnes, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.
Coffee exports have fluctuated over the last five years. Tsegaye told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
But with the addition of tens of thousands of acres of coffee in new growing areas each year, Tsegaye has offset many losses in traditional areas, he said. said the government was also working to combat the effects of climate change in traditional coffee-producing areas by providing small farmers with training on the use of shade trees to reduce temperatures and on the environment. irrigation and improved crop management after harvest. the authority also introduced more resistant varieties of coffee, resistant to diseases and extreme weather events.
However, Tsegaye admitted that current levels of badistance to small traditional producers The coffee growers might not be enough to save the industry in these areas, which is why the marketing authority of the Coffee is planning to grow coffee at high altitude.
CHANGING COFFEE CULTURE
Tadese Woldemariam, Technical Adviser on the Environment, According to the Climate Change and Coffee Forest Forum, coffee growing in areas previously unfamiliar with culture could work, but it had to to be done with caution – and could have side effects
"When the coffee producing areas disappear, thousands of years ago" The mountainous regions of Ethiopia with little history of production of coffee can only be an alternative if there are agricultural extension programs that ensure the sustainability of high-quality coffee growing, "he said.He said that Ethiopia was racing against time to save his coffee sector.
The coffee-producing areas of the country are changing every year more, he said, which means "by the end of in the century, most coffee producing areas, especially those located at altitudes less than 1,500 meters above sea level, will no longer be suitable for coffee production.
In some areas of traditional coffee growing, especially in the east, now covered in khat trees. The leaves of the plant, chewed by millions in the Horn of Africa, contain a psychoactive drug that is used as a mild stimulant.
While coffee is usually harvested once a year, khat – tolerant of drought – can be harvested three times. Woldemariam said that 60% of Ethiopia's traditional coffee producing areas could lose the crop in the coming decades if climate change remains unchecked.
He called for swift action to save the crop could affect the quality and taste of coffee.
The government is studying how to start selling to new markets as new varieties of coffee are planted and begin to fill the voids created by the gradual disappearance of some Ethiopian varieties.
"Harar" coffee, a highly sought-after variety from eastern Ethiopia, is particularly threatened, he says.
ECTDMA "is currently working to create a niche market for Ethiopian coffee in the most popuated world China, with a focus on young Chinese people who hopefully will be regular Ethiopian coffee drinkers soon "said Tsegaye. (Report by Elias Gebreselbadie, edited by James Baer, Robert Carmichael and Laurie Goering) Please thank the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the humanitarian news, climate change, the resilience, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. http://news.trust.org/climate)
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