In northern Sierra Leone, a rare coffee plant is found which has thin leaves and marble-sized fruits. A team of researchers has searched for a year, and they discovered that the plant had not been born in fruits. The scientists need to find it mate if they hope to increase this uncommon variety. The coffee plantation is threatened by climate change, a deadly fungal disease, and risky farming practices.
The coffee that people cultivate and drink today comes from just two species. The coffee industry is valued at $100 million. The rise in global temperatures is hampering the cultivation of coffee. Climate change is a significant issue for coffee plants, according to experts. That’s because the plants need such specific conditions to grow. By 2050, around half of the suitable areas for coffee growing could be lost due to the climate crisis, according to a study carried out in 2014.
Latin America produces 60% of the world’s coffee. Before the end of this century, the most widely produced two species cultivated today are at risk of disappearing in the wild completely. In the world of food, it is a similar story. The loss of coffee wouldn’t necessarily cause mass starvation. Still, in the tropics, hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers and coffee-processing jobs and the gross domestic product of several countries will be affected.
Coffee’s problems are intricate and interrelated. Simultaneously the coffee industry is fueling the climate crisis. It is clearing ecologically rich habitats for rows of tightly packed coffee plants. Coffee production has been a cause of massive deforestation. For creating a more resilient coffee system, a model already exists.
Every year the world drinks more than 500 million cups of coffee. Most coffee is generally perceived as tasting too harsh. That is the reason for all coffee consumed today; 99% comes from two African species that are plantable, called robusta and arabica. The more preferred is arabica. It is a delicate crop that accounts for over 60 percent of global coffee production. The species can only be produced in a narrow strip of land between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn with optimal temperatures and ideal altitudes. Over there, the plant gets the right amount of sunlight and rain. The coffee leaf rust, the fungal disease, affects arabica more.
The other species widely consumed today, robusta. This coffee entered the picture shortly after a fungus, coffee leaf rust, wiped out almost all of Sri Lanka’s arabica crop in the late 19th century. In Asia around the turn of the 20th century, robusta gained a commercial foothold as coffee leaf rust spread throughout arabica crops. This variety of coffee now accounts for around 40% of global coffee production. This can grow where arabica can’t and has more excellent resistance to coffee leaf rust. Many experts say it tastes worst than arabica.
Global warming is narrowing the range of both species of coffee. But leaf rust is still the most immediate threat to the coffee industry today. The fungus enters the coffee plant through minuscule openings on its leaves, and then all the nutrients are sucked by it, essentially starving the plant. Leaves can be seen spotted with red blotches and tell-tale yellow. Unripe cherries turn from green to yellow.
