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Global Warming
can eliminate livelihoods. The fungus chokes the plants,
As we already mentioned, climate change se- causing leaves to fall off, those leaves are the part of
verely threatens the long-term sustainability of coffee the plant that serve to collect light and help its breath-
as a global commodity crop. Researches made by World ing process. Without them, the plant is killed. Accord-
Coffee Research have demonstrated that rising tem- ing to World Coffee Research, 18.2 million bags of
peratures, increasing weather volatility and increased coffee were lost to coffee rust between 2011/2012 and
prevalence of diseases and pests associated with cli- 2015/2016, 1.7 million people in the region were put
mate change contribute to both lower yields and out of work. “Mainly la roya is an important factor in
lower quality coffee for producers, and of course af- handling and controlling our coffee plants, but with a
fects their livelihoods. “The last few years we have good nutrition program and a prior preparations we
been surprised by the climate changes that we’ve seen were able to control and cease la roya, the coffee plants
in our area. Our climate used to be very cool and now have their own immune and self defense system so they
we see higher temperature and less rainfalls ,longer learn to control their hydratation, sun radiation and
summers and because of that we had to water every oxidation stress,” says Enrique López Aguilar, owner
coffee plant due to the lack of rainfall and that lack of of Finca Chelin in Chiapas, Mexico. That is where it is
rainfall led to poorer development of coffee cherry,” crucial for the farmers to identify every disease as
says Omar Olayo from Olayo Coffee Company in An- early as possible and this is, of course, dependent on
tigua, Guatemala. Unfortunately, there is little that education.
farmers can do other than rely on the scientific com-
munity to be able to assist in providing new farming
techniques to combat what climate is currently dishing
out to them: water preservation, irrigation techniques
and other farming methods that can handle the par-
ticular climate proposition.
Leaf Rust

One more struggle for farmers caused by climate
change is the rust as it develops easier due to the heat
and humidity. Coffee leaf rust (la roya in Spanish), a
fungus, is a colorful disease that kills coffee crops and

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