Understanding individuals’ incentives for climate change adaptation in Nicaragua's coffee sector

Enhancing the climate resilience of coffee production.

“…Pappo et al (2021) suggest that coffee production can only be sustained through the identification and selection of new cultivars. Catimor coffee is an example of a high-yield cultivar developed in the 1950s from existing Arabica hybrids that is popular in Central and South America as it is more resistant to CLR and produces a higher-grade coffee than Robusta (Bro et al, 2020).…”

“…This species pool likely contains beneficial characteristics such as disease resistance and heat tolerance (Davis et al, 2019). The genetic diversity within these coffee wild relatives must be maintained to adapt to changing threats to future production, like resistant pests and disease (Bro et al, 2020). Coffea stenophylla is an example of a wild coffee species originating from West Africa with potential to create more climate resilient coffee production as it grows in annual temperatures 6.2-6.8 °C hotter on average than Arabica (Davis et al, 2021).…”

“…Monoculture coffee production, in addition to deforestation and fragmentation of biodiverse landscapes, increasingly threaten wild coffee populations that contain the genes with potential to provide climate resilience (Aerts et al, 2017). Davis et al (2019) Given the rate of emerging climatic threats to coffee production; identifying species with the potential to provide secure yields of quality coffee alongside practices that encourage biodiversity are paramount (Bro et al, 2020;Watts, 2016). At present, changing dominant cultivars takes several years and the viability of these also depends on consumer's acceptance and desire for such change.…”

“…Desirable traits for agroforestry species selection include compatibility with coffee, fruit and biomass production, and minimal labour requirements (Souza et al, 2010). In the wild, coffee grows naturally as an understory crop, and producing coffee under shade trees is a traditional method of cultivating coffee (Bro et al, 2020). Nevertheless, since the 1900s, with the coffee demand growing and the global intensification of agriculture, there has been a shift towards monocultural coffee production characterised by shade trees removal, high coffee crop densities and increased agrochemical inputs (Gidey et al, 2020;Perfecto et al, 2019b).…”

“…Conversely, Lin's (2009) study in Mexico found little difference in the yield and size of the coffee berries produced under high and low shade systems. Finding the optimal spacing and shade tree species to mitigate the effects of climate change whilst maintaining viable yields will be dependent on local conditions and management (Bro et al, 2020). For example, Sarmiento-Soler et al (2020) found in Uganda that when shade cover was greater than 30%, the yield was reduced.…”