How agroforestry can help mountain coffee producers build resilience
03/07/2024
Rome - A new publication from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sets out how coffee produced through agroforestry can improve resilience and ensure livelihoods in the face of climate change.
Coffee is the second most-traded commodity after oil, and the sector provides employment and income to an estimated 25 million households in over 80 countries, 80 percent of which are smallholder farmers.
How coffee value chains foster climate-resilient livelihoods – The FAO-Slow Food Coffee Coalition experience explains that coffee production is highly susceptible to climate-induced hazards. In Uganda, for example, drought caused a 6.8 percent decrease in coffee production in 2022-2023. By 2050, land suitable for coffee production is predicted to decrease by 49-56 percent.
The publication explains how agroforestry practices – essentially farming with trees - can be used as a climate risk reduction strategy that preserves ecosystems, improves production, generates higher incomes, enhances ecosystem sustainability and fosters resilient livelihoods.
“Multiple benefits make agroforestry systems highly resilient to climate variability,” said Ewald Rametsteiner, Deputy Director of FAO’s Forestry Division. “For some African countries, the importance of agroforestry systems for producing coffee cannot be understated.”
Case study from Malawi and Uganda
The report presents a pilot project to promote coffee produced through agroforestry among producers in Malawi and Uganda, designed and implemented by FAO and the Slow Food Coffee Coalition, an international network that promotes sustainable coffee value chains, with funding from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and supported by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat.
The project assessed the difficulties faced by mountain coffee producing communities and worked to enhance the technical capacities and awareness of communities and institutions to address the challenges and use agroforestry systems to build resilience to climate change.
As a result, some participating producers have been able to access markets that recognize traditional and sustainable production systems, as well as a business incubator programme. In Uganda, which is Africa’s second largest coffee producer and the world’s tenth largest, the results and lessons learnt were presented at the Fourth Slow Food Coffee Festival.
The report calls for increased adoption of agroforestry through greater access to finance for producers, enhanced technical support, revised government policies supporting coffee produced through agroforestry, and investment.
The new report was launched during a global workshop on coffee at FAO headquarters in Rome.
Coffee is the second most-traded commodity after oil, and the sector provides employment and income to an estimated 25 million households in over 80 countries, 80 percent of which are smallholder farmers.
How coffee value chains foster climate-resilient livelihoods – The FAO-Slow Food Coffee Coalition experience explains that coffee production is highly susceptible to climate-induced hazards. In Uganda, for example, drought caused a 6.8 percent decrease in coffee production in 2022-2023. By 2050, land suitable for coffee production is predicted to decrease by 49-56 percent.
The publication explains how agroforestry practices – essentially farming with trees - can be used as a climate risk reduction strategy that preserves ecosystems, improves production, generates higher incomes, enhances ecosystem sustainability and fosters resilient livelihoods.
“Multiple benefits make agroforestry systems highly resilient to climate variability,” said Ewald Rametsteiner, Deputy Director of FAO’s Forestry Division. “For some African countries, the importance of agroforestry systems for producing coffee cannot be understated.”
Case study from Malawi and Uganda
The report presents a pilot project to promote coffee produced through agroforestry among producers in Malawi and Uganda, designed and implemented by FAO and the Slow Food Coffee Coalition, an international network that promotes sustainable coffee value chains, with funding from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and supported by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat.
The project assessed the difficulties faced by mountain coffee producing communities and worked to enhance the technical capacities and awareness of communities and institutions to address the challenges and use agroforestry systems to build resilience to climate change.
As a result, some participating producers have been able to access markets that recognize traditional and sustainable production systems, as well as a business incubator programme. In Uganda, which is Africa’s second largest coffee producer and the world’s tenth largest, the results and lessons learnt were presented at the Fourth Slow Food Coffee Festival.
The report calls for increased adoption of agroforestry through greater access to finance for producers, enhanced technical support, revised government policies supporting coffee produced through agroforestry, and investment.
The new report was launched during a global workshop on coffee at FAO headquarters in Rome.
