Central America | It is getting too warm for the coffee plants in Honduras

Benigna Ramos is a coffee farmer from southwest Honduras. Photo: Knut Henkel Benigna Ramos slowly lets coffee beans slide through her fingers and checks their quality. The small farmer, who runs a four-hectare coffee farm in southwest Honduras, is satisfied. “Today we will drive five to ten bags to Marcala and sell them there,” explains the 57-year-old. She and her husband and children have built the model farm, which is located a few kilometers outside the colonial town of La Esperanza, over the last 20 years. »We grow coffee of high quality and according to agro-forestry criteria. The coffee beans ripen in the shade of precious woods, bananas and fruit trees - this is necessary and has many advantages," explains the farmer's wife.

Planting shade trees is necessary because coffee plants throughout Central America are becoming too warm due to climate change. Temperatures are rising, which is accompanied by heavy rain, but also droughts. It was only in August that the government in Tegucigalpa declared a drought alert for 234 of the country's 298 municipalities. Due to low water levels, there is a risk of massive crop failures, and precious water for livestock has become scarce. As Ramos reports, the coffee region of Marcala and La Esperanza is also affected. »However, in recent years we have tried to counteract this through reforestation. That has an influence on the microclimate. She sought advice from the national coffee institute, small non-governmental organizations and experts from the organic coffee cooperative Comsa.

The region's adaptation to climate change is hard to miss when driving through the hills and mountains covered in coffee plots. Where previously only coffee bushes dominated the partly terraced slopes, in many places they can now only be seen at second glance. Trees, banana trees and green barriers were interplanted to prevent erosion. “We have planted an estimated 200,000 trees in the last five or six years, which means we have slightly more rainfall in the Marcala region and we also cooperate with the city administration on waste recycling and separation as well as water treatment,” explains Rodolfo Peñalba. He is the long-standing managing director of Comsa and an advocate of building our own, sustainable structures.

Comsa produces up to 80,000 bags of organic fertilizer in one plant every year and sells it to members and customers such as Benigna Ramos. The experts at the cooperative, which was founded in 2001 with around 60 farmers and a starting balance of $300, also offer coffee plants and seedlings of local precious wood and fruit trees. Peñalba, an organic expert with consulting experience, small farmer and coffee visionary all in one, has played a decisive role in making Comsa one of the ten largest coffee exporting companies in Honduras. The small country ranks fifth among the world's largest producers after Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia.

However, this can change quickly due to climate change: Scientific studies predict that Central America, including the coffee producers Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama, could lose up to 85 percent of the cultivated area. »It becomes too warm for the coffee at low cultivation altitudes of 900 to 1200 meters above sea level, and in extreme cases it drops the fruit. Climate change is a real threat to us,” explains Benigna Ramos. Your model farm is intended to show what the small farmers in the neighborhood can do differently and better. “Planting young, resilient seedlings helps, as does fertilizing the plants with biomass and reforestation,” explains the hands-on woman, who produces around 150 bags of coffee weighing 69 kilograms per harvest with her family.

This year, however, it is likely to be a little less, because the drought has at least partially ensured that there was not enough water after flowering to allow the fruits to form properly. Smaller beans could result. Ramos belongs to a group of 25 small farmers who are looking for fair buyers and are continuously developing their cultivation strategies. »There is no alternative to this. We have to do better, defy climate change and, at the same time, see that we produce alternative products such as honey or avocados in order to improve our income situation," says Ramos, outlining her personal strategy. She successfully passes this on and promotes both women and young talent. She believes there is no alternative to this because emigration has contributed to the shortage of workers.

It is clear that more information is needed on how climate change can be addressed. And their farm is something like a green classroom. Sometimes on Saturday or Sunday this opens the door for a tour in the shade of fruit and precious wood trees to the chirping of many birds. But all of that is at risk. Honduran President Nasry Asfura recently warned that the drought could last until March or April next year due to the particularly severe climate phenomenon El Niño. Difficult conditions even for exemplary coffee cultivation.  

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