Coffee faces bleak future #uganda

Uganda is still Africa's second largest coffee producer after
Ethiopia, but it might not be for much longer. While it is the
only country where coffee production has risen among the
top producers in the last coffee year, the International Coffee
Organisation (ICO) has warned that more needs to be done
in order to save the livelihoods of millions of small-holder
farmers of the crop and the country's foreign exchange
revenues.
According to the latest global coffee production report,
Ethiopia remains the largest coffee-producing country in
Africa with 6.4 million 60-kg bags in 2012/2013, followed
by Uganda at 3.7 million, Côte d'Ivoire (two million) and
Tanzania (1.1 million). However, there has been a massive
global decline in production, which is being attributed to
climate change.
The ICO is now calling on the public and private sectors to
step up and invest in robust scientific research and
extension services to farmers. It says if nothing is done to
mitigate the effects that climate change will continue to
have on coffee production, everyone along the supply chain
would suffer but farmers would be hit the hardest.
"It is the millions of smallholder, coffee producing families
who live in regions of the world with the lowest levels of
access to agricultural services or protections whose
livelihoods will be disrupted the most," the report reads in
part.
It says Governments, private companies, and foundations
must collaborate to invest in scientific research of major
food crops to support the needs of farmers with disease-
resistant crop varieties, innovations in farming implements,
knowledge on efficient farming techniques, among other
services. Uganda falls in the category of countries with low
access to agricultural services and protection.
Indeed, the local experts are worried and wouldn't want
what has befallen other countries such as Ethiopia to
happen to here. "Climate change is real and we have
started mapping climate change and agro-climate
conditions looking for hotspots to be most affected," says
Dr. Andrew Kiggundu, the head of biotechnology at the
National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO).
He says they are also looking at crops grown in those areas
and mapping them as well. For some they are collecting
samples and to be stored in seed banks as well as carrying
out studies on climate mitigation measures on how crops
were preserved in the past when there were changing
climatic conditions.
In early April 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) released a report, which predicted serious
threats to coffee due to rising temperatures and changing
rainfall patterns. Based on a thorough review of scientific
studies on climate change from around the globe, the IPCC
projected that coffee production, especially Arabica, would
be significantly reduced by the spread of plant diseases and
pests in all countries studied by 2050.
According to the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign
Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), world coffee production
during the 2013/14 crop year was just slightly over nine
million tonnes, down 3.2% from the record 9.3 million tons
in 2012/13.
The ICO report puts emphasis on governments going into
Public Private Partnerships to deal with rising temperatures,
altered rainfall patterns, and rising pest incidence, which
experts say will increasingly affect future coffee production,
requiring adaptation measures.
In East and Central Africa, the Black Coffee Twig Borer
(BCTB) has caused unimagined damage to the coffee plants,
and is now hitting other types of crops. Last year, Ugandan
scientists encountered the disease crossing from coffee to
attack other different types of fruits and vegetables. BCTB
has now been identified in about 50 plants species
especially mangoes, jackfruit, eggplant, guavas, tomatoes,
avocados, bitter balls and cocoa.
Emergency situation:
Africano Kangire, director of the Uganda Coffee Research
Centre, said the epidemic should be treated as a "national
emergency." Ugandan scientists in 2012 warned that the
effects of climate change especially with the rise in
temperature are likely to increase the spread of crop
diseases and pests. At the 111th ICO Council, the Ugandan
delegation expressed concern about the outbreak of BCTB,
warning that it had the potential to spread within East and
Central Africa thus endangering the livelihoods of the coffee
growers.
In Uganda, the incidence has been registered at 8.6%,
causing a loss of 40% of the affected crop. It is the worst
seen since this pest appeared in Africa in 1993, and has led
Uganda to declare a phytosanitary emergency so as to
trigger the necessary national measures to combat the
epidemic.
It is estimated that $42 million worth of Uganda's coffee -
about 0.27 million bags of exportable coffee in Uganda -
have already been lost as a result of the BCTB in the coffee
year 2012/2013, and this will bring about a systematic
reduction in the region'sproduction as from the coffee year
2013/14. Governments and the private coffee sector in the
region are together making joint efforts to address the
situation.
Faced with an increase in pests, diseases, and droughts,
one of the most crucial agricultural services required by the
coffee sector today is plant breeding to produce more
resilient hybrid coffee varieties.
The report says, the public and private sectors need to act
now to support coffee science and extension, engaging the
consumers to get involved as well.
The report notes that adaptation is possible if strong public-
private investments in scientific research are supported.
"Let's work together to make this happen," it concludes.