Farmers face the double whammy of poor pay and climate change

In the lush, volcanic mountains of Komotai in Kenya's Rift Valley, farmers like Simon Macharia produce coffee in small plantations scattered across the hills.

Along with other farmers, Mr Macharia takes sacks of his bright red coffee cherries to the local processing plant where they are weighed and processed.

A machine removes the red husks, and the light-colored beans inside are washed and passed through concrete channels, ending up on lines of drying platforms that stretch across the valley.

Here, workers categorize the beans into grades, the highest intended for coffee shops in Europe.

“We call coffee the black gold here,” Mr Macharia, whose farm covers 2.5 hectares (six acres), told the BBC.

He grows Kenya AA coffee beans, which are prized worldwide for their high quality, full body, deep aromas and fruity taste.

The culture has been a part of these lush mountains since the late 1890s when British colonial settlers introduced it.

The area is now known for its unique, top-rated coffee.

Growing berries is labor intensive – picking, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilizing and transporting the produce.

“Coffee requires full-time concentration, especially when it starts to flower,” Mr Macharia said.

“From that point until the day you harvest—those six months, your full-time job is on the farm.”

The coffee tree is a huge investment for cash-strapped farmers, as the fruit can take four years to ripen.

The price of a cup of coffee in a posh European cafe, typically $4 (£3.20), highlights a stark disparity compared to the incomes of many coffee workers in Kenya, who make as little as $2.30 a day.

Edita Mwangi, who is harvesting coffee cherries on the red-earth hill overlooking the processing plant, confirms this.

“They don't know the poverty we suffer. You have to fight day and night just to survive,” she said.

With four children dependent on her, Ms Mwangi works six days a week, earning about $1.40 a day.

She has to walk 5 km (three miles) to reach the farm where she works.

Farmers believe the trade system between Kenya and Europe – the world's largest coffee market – has been stacked against them for many years.

But now a new threat is looming that threatens farmers' ability to make a living – climate change.

Coffee trees are extremely sensitive to small differences in temperature and weather conditions.

They also need specific climatic conditions such as humid temperatures and heavy rainfall to grow.

“Climate change is a big challenge for our coffee farmers,” said John Murigi, chairman of the Komothai Coffee Society, which represents 8,000 coffee farmers like Mr Macharia.

Cold temperatures and erratic rainfall are taking their toll on the delicate coffee plants, Mr Murigi said.

As a result, “coffee production has declined over the past few years.”

He added that climate change is increasing the spread of disease in coffee plants.

Mr Murigi said there has been a significant increase in coffee leaf miners, insects that feed on coffee leaves, and coffee bean disease, a devastating fungal infection that can destroy more than 80% of crops.

To deal with the growing outbreaks, farmers are resorting to the use of herbicides and insecticides, which can damage soil quality in the long term and also pose a health risk.

Farmers use dangerous herbicides such as Roundup, which contain glyphosate, which is known to cause cancer – banned in some European countries – to ensure a good harvest.

Kenya's Pest Control Products Board (PCPB), responsible for regulating the use of these products, did not respond to a BBC request for comment.

Up to 140 liters of water can be needed to produce one cup of coffee – including the water used to grow the plants.

But in Kenya's fertile Rift Valley, warmer temperatures and changing rainfall patterns mean dwindling water supplies for coffee farmers.

Farmer Joseph Kimani told the BBC that “river levels have dropped a lot” due to erratic weather, such as periods of drought and heavy rain.

He said due to lack of rain, farmers are forced to use more river water.

But this increased reliance on river water, brought on by the lack of rainfall, can further strain already limited water supplies.

While Mr Murigi acknowledges the increase in water consumption by coffee farmers, he denies that this is the reason the river is drying up.

However, with 23 coffee societies in this region, a significant amount of water is clearly used in the coffee growing process in Kiambu County.

Komothia's story is not unique. As global temperatures and droughts increase, good coffee will become difficult to grow in all parts of the world.

Coffee can only be grown in the “coffee belt” – tropical regions of the world in areas usually located between 1000m and 2000m above sea level.

In recent years, climate change has led to global coffee supply shortages and increased coffee prices due to drought and crop failure in several key coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam.

A study by Fairtrade International, the organization behind the Fairtrade labels, found that 93% of coffee farmers in Kenya are already experiencing the effects of climate change.

The coffee industry in Kenya is a key source of employment, providing jobs for about 150,000 people.

To protect the industry, coffee growers in areas like Komotai are experimenting with climate adaptation techniques, such as planting trees to provide extra shade for the coffee plants.

Mr Murigi said it was only by addressing both the climate and economic challenges facing Kenyan coffee farmers that they could have a sustainable future.

However, coffee growers like Mr Macharia are pessimistic about the future of the industry.

“Right now, the way things are, I don't think any parent wants their child growing coffee here,” he said.