Coffee farmers struggle to adapt to Colombia’s changing climate

A coffee picker, hand picks the beans, in a farm in Combia, Risaralda.
Kaveh Kazemi | Getty Images


Its unique geography makes Colombia one of the world's greatest coffee-producing nations, selling US$2.64 billion of mild, high-altitude Arabica beans to countries around the world each year. Only Brazil and Vietnam export more coffee.


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These fertile mountains already face weather-related risks, such as mudslides and erosion. Now, the country's coffee region is increasingly vulnerable to climate change-induced disasters like flooding, drought and invasive pests.


Farmers see the changes around them


We asked 45 farmers questions that tapped into the farmers' own conceptualization of climate change, such as "What is climate change?" and "How, if at all, has climate change affected you as a farmer?"

The results were stark.



These changes have created uncertainty about previously routine farming decisions.




"Our ability to counteract the effects of climate change is minimal," one farmer told us. "It is a threat capable of greatly incapacitating us. So we must be very attentive to the little we can do to mitigate."

Growing coffee in today's climate

From 2008 to 2013, Colombia's coffee production dropped approximately 33 percent due to the El Niño and La Niña inclement weather patterns, when rains, clouds and hot spells all increased.




Most producers sell their coffee to the Colombian National Coffee Federation, a nonprofit cooperative founded in 1927 to represent Colombia's coffee farmers nationally and internationally. It values Colombia's coffee exports using a price scale tied to the New York Stock Exchange.

Since that price fluctuates daily, it is difficult to calculate an individual farmer's exact income or losses, but most small farmers in Colombia barely break even.


Farmers struggle to adapt

To adapt to Colombia's changing climate, some farmers have begun experimenting with new farming techniques they think might help offset its impacts.


Some coffee farmers had also diversified their crops, adding banana and avocados trees to their farms to reduce the risks of any one crop's failed harvest.



Keeping Colombia's coffee industry alive

Climate-related production challenges are a concern not just for the farmers we interviewed but also for Colombia's economy.

Coffee is the South American country's most important agricultural export, representing 31 percent of all agricultural trade. The industry is worth around $1.97 billion a year and employs an estimated 800,000 people.


Research shows that teaching people to farm in a new and unpredictable environment requires a detailed understanding of how a given population is vulnerable to climate change now and in the future. That means asking farmers what they think and feel about what's happening to design contingency plans that will actually work for them.


Farming in the face of climate change involves grappling with many complicated economic, informational, labor and business problems. Colombian coffee farmers want to succeed, but they'll need help in all of these areas just to survive.

Commentary by Jessica Eise and Natalie White, a fellow and assistant professor in communication at Purdue University. They are also contributors at The Conversation, an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community. Follow Jessica on Twitter @jessicaeise.
