Climate change Coffee Noodle Dilemma in Costa Rica

Coffee trees planted in Costa Rica, a kilometer from a mountain village town, have provided the world with the best Arabica coffee beans for more than a century. But because of the warming climate, farmers now have to plant at higher ground-about 7000 feet high.

"We noticed climate change about six years ago." Ricardo? Madrid (Ricardo Calderon Madrigal) said. His family grows coffee beans at a higher altitude. Calderon is one of the few farmers who have benefited from local climate change, and most of his colleagues are on the brink of collapse.

According to the Seattle Times, Costa Rica's coffee bean production has fallen sharply in the last decade, which farmers and scientists blame largely on climate change. Many farmers who have been growing coffee beans for many years have found that coffee trees begin to wither or blossom ahead of time. Some people have given up growing coffee beans. According to the Costa Rican National Coffee Authority (iCafe), Costa Rica now has 25% less land to grow coffee beans than it did a decade ago. Nearly 10000 farmers have given up growing coffee beans, while others have turned the land where coffee beans were grown into farms for cows or beef cattle. The last remaining coffee farms are now producing less, 26% less than they were a decade ago.

Like many tropical crops, coffee trees cannot survive in extreme high and low temperatures and have to experience dry and rainy seasons. Costa Rica and other countries with mature coffee farms and processing industries, such as Colombia, were the first to notice the impact of climate change.

These problems have pushed up the prices of lattes and Italian espresso around the world. More importantly, as farmers around the world face problems such as landslides, droughts and climate change that seriously affect food production, the fate of these Costa Rican coffees will become a bellwether for global food production and prices.

Recent heavy rains in Colombia have pushed the price of coffee beans to their highest level in more than a decade, and coffee companies are keeping a close eye on the matter. Last fall, Starbucks raised the price of some drinks to offset the rising cost of goods, especially coffee. Climate is just one of the problems. There are too many old coffee trees in Costa Rica, and the cost of growing coffee has been increasing because of labor shortages and currency depreciation.

"however, climate change accounts for 1/4 of the current plight and is expected to worsen." Ronald, executive director of iCafe? Ronald Peters said.

However, only Arabian coffee beans grown in Costa Rica can use volcanic soil to produce the world's popular coffee at high elevations.

On the slopes of the Boaz volcano, the biggest threats to coffee trees are cooler temperatures at night, stronger winds, too much rain and the wrong time. Coffee farms on the Boaz volcano used to keep temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit at night, but now they have dropped to 52 degrees Fahrenheit. Growers have to plant more Indian sugar cane and other trees as wind barriers.

Rainfall has also become more unstable. Farmers often look up at the sky during the harvest season, fearing possible rain and the possibility that their coffee trees may blossom prematurely. Usually, coffee trees don't blossom until April. Many coffee trees that bloom in January will have to dry up due to lack of moisture before the real rainy season.

Rainfall also means higher humidity and more microbes. To deal with these problems, farmers have to trim the coffee trees smaller so that the leaves can reduce the absorption of water.

In addition, landslides often occur in these places. Although climate change may reduce overall rainfall over a long period of time, some places, including Costa Rica, have experienced several torrential rains. In recent years, landslides have engulfed many coffee farms, blocked roads and destroyed at least two processing plants.

Experts are trying to help coffee growers cope with these problems. In general, they advise farmers to work harder to protect the environment and to grow coffee better, such as adding shade trees and planting coffee beans on curved terraces to prevent large amounts of ground runoff.

Researchers are developing more hardy varieties of coffee beans to adapt to climate change. But because of the small quantity, these new varieties are usually twice as expensive as ordinary varieties. However, Peters of iCafe says these new varieties can increase coffee bean production by 25 per cent.

Costa Rica is the world's 15th largest exporter of coffee, and high coffee prices help farmers make ends meet on poor harvests. Coffee is Costa Rica's third largest agricultural export, with an annual output value of US $400 million, after pineapples and bananas. However, coffee prices are expected to fall again in the end. As a result, iCafe's Peters says he hopes Costa Rica's production levels will pick up "because there are not many alternative coffee bean-growing industries in many areas."

Roberto, who runs the joint venture Coopedota? Roberto Mata is worried about this. His coffee beans are usually sold to Starbucks. "if the price of coffee falls to 100 cents a pound, we will not be able to survive." Marta said. Currently, coffee is sold on the commodity market for about $2.75 a pound.

A few years ago, when Coopedota's 800 farms suffered surprisingly low yields, Marta began to study weather and climate change. "at first I was just scared; but then I became angry." He said. After he sent a representative to the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun last fall, Marta became angrier because at that conference, there has been no substantial progress in efforts to control greenhouse gases and take action to mitigate or reverse the effects of climate change.

Now Mata is trying to make Coopedota a carbon-neutral farm, mainly because he wants to set an example. He also hopes to hire two agricultural scientists to teach farmers how to deal with climate change, and he is lobbying for some funding to support scientists, new coffee trees and additional fungicides.

He says growing coffee beans at high altitudes may not be a good solution for many farmers because different soils and large amounts of clouds can breed mold. As a test, Coopedota planted some coffee trees at a height of 6400 feet and experimented to see if there was any mold infestation.

Marta says all these measures are designed to enable farmers to make ends meet. He also hopes that his son will continue his family's 85-year tradition of growing coffee.