Farmers face the double whammy of poor wages and climate change

In the fertile volcanic highlands of Kumuthai in Kenya's Rift Valley, farmers like Simon Macharia produce coffee on small farms spread across the hillsides.

Macharia, along with other farmers, bring bags of bright red coffee cherries to the local processing plant, where they are weighed and processed.

A machine removes the red husks, and the pale grains inside are washed and passed through concrete ducts, ending up on lines of drying pads that sweep through the valley.

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

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

He grows Kenyan AA coffee beans, which are highly prized around the world for their high quality, full body, deep aroma and fruity flavour.

The crop has been part of these verdant uplands since the late 1890s, when it was introduced by British colonial settlers.

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

Raspberry cultivation is labor-intensive – picking, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilizing and transporting produce.

“Coffee requires your focus all the time, especially when it starts to bloom,” Macharia said.

“From that moment until the day you harvest — those six months, it will be your full-time job on the farm.”

A coffee tree is a huge investment for cash-strapped farmers, as the fruits can take four years to mature.

The price of a single cup of coffee in an elegant European café, usually $4 (£3.20), highlights a stark contrast compared to the earnings of many Kenyan baristas, who earn at most $2.30 a day.

This is confirmed by Edita Mwangi, who harvests coffee cherries on the red earth hills overlooking the processing plant.

“They don’t know how much poverty we suffer from,” she said. “You have to struggle day and night to survive.”

Ms. Mwangi works six days a week, supports her four children, and earns about $1.40 a day.

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

Farmers feel that the trading system between Kenya and Europe – the world's largest coffee market – has been working against them for many years.

But now a new threat looms over farmers' ability to make a living: climate change.

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

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

“Climate change is a big challenge for our coffee farmers,” says John Morigi, president of the Kumuthai Coffee Association, which represents 8,000 coffee farmers like Macharia.

Morigi said cold temperatures and erratic rainfall are having a devastating effect on sensitive coffee plants.

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

He added that climate change increases the spread of diseases in coffee plants.

Mr. Morigi said there has been a significant increase in the number of coffee leaf miners, insects that feed on coffee leaves, and coffee berry disease, a devastating fungal infection that can wipe out more than 80% of crops.

To deal with the growing outbreak, farmers are resorting to the use of herbicides and pesticides that can damage soil quality in the long run and also pose health risks.

Farmers use dangerous herbicides such as Roundup, which contains glyphosate, which is known to cause cancer – and is banned in some European countries – to ensure they get a good crop.

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

Producing one cup of coffee may require up to 140 liters of water, including the water needed for plant growth.

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

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

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

But this increased reliance on river water, driven by a lack of rainfall, may increase pressure on already limited water supplies.

While Mr. Morigi acknowledges coffee farmers' high water use, he denies that this is the reason behind the river's drying up.

However, with 23 coffee associations in this region, it is clear that a large amount of water is used in the coffee growing process in Kiambu County.

Kumuthya's story is not unique. As global temperatures and droughts rise, it will become more difficult to grow good coffee around the world.

Coffee can only be grown in the “coffee belt” – the tropics around the world, in areas typically located between 1,000 and 2,000 metres.

In recent years, climate change has led to a shortage in global coffee supplies and an increase in coffee prices due to drought and crop failure in several major coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam.

A survey by Fair Trade International, the organization behind fair trade labels, found that 93% of Kenyan coffee farmers are already suffering from the effects of climate change.

Kenya's coffee industry is a major source of employment, providing employment to an estimated 150,000 people.

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

Mr Muriji said that only by addressing the climate and economic challenges faced by Kenyan coffee farmers can they have a sustainable future.

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

“Right now, with the current situation, I don’t think any parent wants their child to be here growing coffee,” he said.