New Research Warns of Peril to Coffee Industry Amid Climate Change
The coffee sector faces a growing menace, as per a recent investigation. This threat emanates from the consequences of climate change and the loss of pollinators, compounding the vulnerabilities of coffee growers and putting international trade in jeopardy.
Conducted by a team of scholars from the University College London (UCL), the study, featured in the latest edition of Science Advances, delves into the worldwide decline in the biodiversity of insect pollinators. It simultaneously scrutinizes its links to shifts in agricultural land use, particularly deforestation, climate change, food production, and the global trade network.
According to Tim Newbold, the lead author and a prominent figure in the UCL Biosciences department, “Our findings emphasize the immediate necessity for taking collective action on a global scale to mitigate climate change. We must also prioritize the preservation of natural habitats and curb land use changes to prevent any detrimental effects on insect pollinators.”
The study, supervised by UCL’s Ph.D. researcher Joe Millard, who is presently affiliated with the Natural History Museum in London, hinged on a dataset encompassing over 2,600 locations and 3,080 distinct pollinator species. The results of the research suggest that regions in the tropics face the highest threats to crop production stemming from the loss of pollinators due to climate change and changes in agricultural land use.
The authors of the study articulated, “Localized risk is most pronounced and poised to surge rapidly in areas of sub-Saharan Africa, northern South America, and Southeast Asia. Climate change and the shifts in land use present a potential peril to human well-being through pollinator loss alone.”
The research paper probes the repercussions of pollinator diminishment on several significant crops that serve as staples and economic cornerstones. Among them, coffee and cocoa have been singled out due to their susceptibility in agriculture and their pivotal role in the global economy.
The study points out that coffee, in particular, confronts a precarious combination of high production risks and considerable economic value. This scenario hints at possible economic hardships in regions where coffee is cultivated unless the pollination service can be replaced economically. Similar to cocoa, coffee cultivation is the backbone of income for millions of small-scale farmers and their families in tropical regions. Thus, the escalating production risk arising from pollinator loss may lead to heightened financial insecurity for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
