25
13/14
T
otal exports of coffee last coffee year 2013/2014
clocked 3.5million bags down from 3.6million bags in
2012/2013, the highest level for the last 15 years, and
it is envisaged to increase to 4.5 million by 2018. However,
given the persistent and ever changing climate, can coffee
uphold this performance and continue on an upward trend?
Climate change is an on-going, ever-changing and
unpredictable phenomenonwhich threatens to jeopardize the
livelihoods of millions of farmers and is a serious hazard to
the coffee sector as awhole. TheUgandaCoffeeFederation’s
Coffee yearbook looks at the impact of climate change
on coffee production amidst the ongoing coffee replanting
programme
………………………….
What happened in2012/2013 shouldhavebeengood reason
for Uganda to celebrate. However, unpredictable and harsh
climatic conditions continue to cover the country with a dark
cloud of uncertainty. In 2013/2014, coffee exports had been
projected to reach3.8millionbagsbutweonlymade3.5million.
No one is sure of what to expect tomorrow because climate
change continues tobe a big threat to coffee.
Source: UCDADatabase
Increasing global temperatures, long droughts punctuated by
intense rainfall,more resilient pestsandplant diseases—all of
which are associatedwith climate change—makes it difficult
for the country tobe sure of its coffee future.
In the coffee year 2011-12when everyone expectedUganda
to export a little over 3 million bags of coffee, the country
exported just 2.73 million bags of coffee. This was down by
ClimateChange:
An Imminent
Threat to theCoffee
ReplantingProgramme
