Train coffee farmers to curb climate change
“I am Suzan Bukawa, a housewife with six children and a peasant farmer who grows coffee on a small scale. I have been relying on coffee to meet all my needs… The rains are no longer [predictable] and I can’t know when to plant and harvest my coffee! Our fields are [destroyed] by floods and soils are no longer fertile, which makes life hard.”
This concern, expressed by a farmer from Mbale District, eastern Uganda, is an indication of how climate change is affecting people’s livelihoods. A paradigm shift is necessary where farmers are not only trained to focus on earning income, but sustainable adaptation measures of producing coffee in a manner that barely contributes to pollution and climate change.
The key issue, therefore, is: Does the recent Paris agreement on climate change endorsed by Uganda and other nations take into consideration both the economic plight of farmers and address major climate risks in the coffee sector since, according to the Uganda Coffee Federation (2012) report, 80 per cent of this product is primarily imported from developing countries?
Coffee plays a profound role in world economies. The sector employs 125 million people of whom 10 million are small-holder farmers from water-stressed countries that ironically produce 90 per cent of the product, where Uganda is ranked the seventh according to FairTrade (2012) report.
While FairTrade considers adjusting its international trade commitments to support farmers like Bukawa alleviate poverty, the underlying implications of pollution from coffee production on the environment is contributing to climate change where vulnerable farmers suffer severely.
The hot spots of carbon emissions in producing coffee are from compost preparation, transportation of coffee at different points, energy and water consumption, wastes generated from water and coffee cups disposed at landfills.
Unfortunately, farmers like Bukawa are not aware that waste water causes heavy pollution to the surrounding soils and ground water sources. The major source of waste water pollution is from organic matter. The Jimma Agriculture Resource Centre in Ethiopia conducted a study that confirms that during the wet processing method, a tonne of coffee requires 7,000 – 10,000 litres of water to remove the pulp (cherries) from the coffee beans, which is equivalent to seven cubic metres of water contaminated.
Therefore, as you sip your coffee, contemplate the crucial climatic risks!
That is why the Paris agreement on climate change must ensure that stakeholders reduce the climate risks in coffee production through applying sustainable adaptation measures.
Ann Grace Apiita,
Sustainability and Climate Change Tracker
[email protected]
