Concerning climate change, data from weather stations of Ethiopia showed that the mean annual temperature has increased by 1.3 °C between 1960 and 2006, at an average rate of 0.28 °C per decade, and by 0.3 °C per decade in the southwestern region. In addition, spring and summer rains have declined by 15–20% since the mid-1970s and late 2000s.
The Jimma Agricultural Research Center's expertise response was that there was no research done on the impact of climate change on Ethiopian coffee, but it was expected that the climate change that has occurred will lead to a decrease in coffee production and also to a change in the quality of the coffee. Due to the intermittent rainfall that the country is getting and also the increase in temperature which leads to the abortion of the flowering coffee in turn, leading to a decrease in seed size and reduces the time of maturity, which is one of the indicators of poor quality and temperature.
In addition, the response from the Agricultural Extension Department of ECTA was that global climate change had no impact on the quality and quantity of Ethiopian coffee. He said that climate change did not bring any change to his knowledge. For this, he proposed that, as we all know, Ethiopian coffee grows both in the highlands and lowlands. In the highlands, most beans are grown inside the forest so that they have enough shades. Whereas, in lowland areas, coffee is made to grow together with other agricultural products such as Papaya and Banana so it helps the coffee to grow in better quality.
Overall, although climate change has had an impact on coffee in other parts of the world, there has been no significant impact on the production and quality of coffee in Ethiopia. Even if that is the case, different kinds of mitigation strategies are used in Ethiopia as preventive and protective measures to maintain our fields. In which it has also shown that the cupping grade and coffee production yields remain stable.
Reference
1. Fraym. 2019. The Impact of Climate Change on Ethiopian Coffee - Fraym. Available at: https://fraym.io/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-ethiopian-coffee/ [Accessed 23 January 2021].
2. Moat, J., Williams, J., Baena, S., Wilkinson, T., Demissew, S., Challa, Z.K., Gole, T.W. & Davis. A.P. (2017). Coffee Farming and Climate Change in Ethiopia: Impacts, Forecasts, Resilience, and Opportunities. – Summary. The Strategic Climate Institutions Programme (SCIP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK). Pp. 37.
