Climate change affects coffee plants

Coffee drinkers who savour their daily caffeine fix may have to find substitutes as climate change has already had a “substantial impact” on coffee production.

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According to a paper submitted by Wits PhD student Alessandro Craparo and published in the journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, East Africa’s Tanzanian highlands is the hardest hit area.

The paper warns that without substantial climate change adaption strategies, “the average coffee production in Tanzania will drop to 145kg per hectare by 2060”.

Data from the northern Tanzanian highlands identifies increasing night time temperatures as the most significant climatic variable responsible for “diminishing Arabica coffee yields between 1961 and 2012 and proves that climate change is an ongoing reality.”

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Coffee yields have declined to their “lowest point in years, with many farmers in Tanzania giving up on coffee completely,” said Craparo.