Farmers face the double whammy of low wages and climate change

In the lush volcanic Kamatai highlands of Kenya’s Rift Valley, farmers like Simon Macharia produce coffee in small plantations scattered across the hillsides.

Along with other farmers, Mr. Macharia brings bags of bright red coffee cherries to a local processing plant where they are weighed and processed.

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

Here, workers classify the beans by grade, the highest being destined for coffee shops in Europe.

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

It grows Kenya AA coffee beans, which are valued worldwide for their high quality, richness, deep aroma and fruity taste.

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

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

Growing berries is time-consuming – picking, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilizing and transporting products.

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

“From now until the day you’re going to harvest—those six months are your full time on the farm.”

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

The cost of a cup of coffee in a posh European cafe, usually $4 (£3.20), highlights the stark difference compared to the wages of many Kenyan gentlemen who earn no more than $2.30 a day.

This is confirmed by Edith Mwangi, who harvests coffee cherries on the red earth hillside above the processing plant.

“They don’t know the poverty we suffer from. To survive, you have to fight day and night,” 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 feel the trade system between Kenya and Europe – the world’s largest coffee market – has been stacked against them for years.

But now a new threat looms that threatens farmers’ ability to make a living – climate change.

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

They also need certain climatic conditions to grow, such as humid temperatures and high rainfall.

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

Low temperatures and erratic rainfall are having a devastating effect on the fragile 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 diseases in coffee plants.

Mr Murigi said there had been a significant increase in coffee leaf miners, a bug that feeds on coffee leaves, and coffee berry disease, a devastating fungal infection that can wipe out more than 80% of crops.

To cope with the increasing number of outbreaks, farmers are resorting to the use of herbicides and insecticides, which can damage soil quality in the long term and pose health risks.

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), which is responsible for regulating the use of these products, did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

It can take up to 140 liters of water 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 growers.

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

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

But this increased reliance on river water, driven by a lack of rainfall, could further strain an already limited water supply.

While Mr. Murigi acknowledges increased water use by coffee farmers, he denies that the river is drying up.

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

Kamotio’s story is not unique. As global temperatures and droughts rise, it will be difficult to grow good coffee in all parts of the world.

Coffee can only be grown in the “coffee belt” – tropical regions around the world in areas that are usually between 1,000 and 2,000 m in altitude.

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

A survey by Fairtrade International, the organization behind the Fairtrade label, found that 93% of Kenyan coffee farmers are already feeling the effects of climate change.

The coffee industry in Kenya is a key source of employment, employing approximately 150,000 people.

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

Mr Murigi said it was only by addressing 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.

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