As much as 60% of Ethiopia’s coffee-growing areas could be rendered useless by the end of the century owing to a change in rainfall patterns, temperature seasonality and annual temperature.

Data conducted by Ethiopian scientists and researchers from the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew – using modelling, simulations and satellite imagery covering more than 30 000 km – shows that the country’s mean annual temperature is projected to increase by between 1.1ºC and 3.1ºC by the 2060s, and by 1.5ºC to 5.1ºC by the 2090s.

However, researchers also found that migrating coffee plantations to hillside forests could result in a fourfold increase in coffee-growing areas, with growth reaching the top of the mountains by 2040.

According to a Quartz Africa report, Arabica coffee – which accounts for an estimated 70% of global coffee production – originates from the highland forests of Ethiopia, and even though it is now grown elsewhere in the world, the country is still home to several genetic variations of the bean.

4 July 2017
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