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In the lush, volcanic highlands of Komothai in Kenya’s Rift Valley, farmers like Simon Macharia produce coffee on small plantations scattered across the hillsides.<\/p>\n
Along with other farmers, Mr Macharia brings sacks of his bright red coffee cherries to the local processing plant, where they are weighed and treated.<\/p>\n
A machine removes the red husks, and the pale beans inside are washed and passed along concrete channels, ending up on lines of drying platforms that sweep across the valley.<\/p>\n
Here, workers categorise the beans into grades, the highest destined for the coffee houses of Europe.<\/p>\n
“We call coffee the black gold around here,” Mr Macharia, whose farm covers 2.5 hectares (six acres) , told the BBC.<\/p>\n
He grows the Kenya AA coffee beans, which are prized worldwide for their high quality, full body, deep aromas and fruity flavour.<\/p>\n\n\nOnce harvested the beans need to be taken from the berries and then dried [Kate Stanworth]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The crop has been part of these lush highlands since the late 1890s, when British colonial settlers introduced it.<\/p>\n
Now, the area is famous for its unique, top-rated coffee.<\/p>\n
Growing the berries is labour intensive – picking, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilising and transporting the products.<\/p>\n
“Coffee requires your full-time concentration, especially when it starts to bloom,” Mr Macharia said.<\/p>\n
“From that moment up until the day that you are going to harvest – those six months, your full-time job is on the farm.”<\/p>\n
\nA coffee tree is a huge investment for cash-strapped farmers, as it can take four years for the fruits to mature.<\/p>\n
The price of a single cup of coffee in a chic European caf\u00e9, typically $4 (\u00a33.20), highlights a stark disparity when compared to the earnings of many Kenyan coffee labourers, who make at most $2.30 a day.<\/p>\n
Edita Mwangi, who harvests coffee cherries on the red earth hillside overlooking the processing plant, confirms this.<\/p>\n
“They don’t know the poverty we suffer. You have to struggle day and night just to survive,” she said.<\/p>\n
With four children depending on her, Ms Mwangi works six days a week, earning about $1.40 a day.<\/p>\n
She has to walk 5km (three miles) to reach the farm where she works.<\/p>\n\n\nThe daily wage of most Kenyan coffee workers is less than the price of a cup of coffee in Europe [Kate Stanworth]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Farmers feel the trading system between Kenya and Europe – the world’s largest coffee market – has been stacked against them for many years.<\/p>\n
But now, a new threat looms, jeopardising farmers’ ability to make a living – climate change.<\/p>\n
Coffee trees are extremely sensitive to small differences in temperature and weather conditions.<\/p>\n
They also need specific climatic conditions like humid temperatures and ample rainfall to grow.<\/p>\n
“Climate change is a major challenge for our coffee farmers,” says John Murigi, the chairman of the Komothai Coffee Society, which represents 8,000 coffee farmers like Mr Macharia.<\/p>\n
Cold temperatures and erratic rainfall are having a devastating impact on the delicate coffee plants, said Mr Murigi.<\/p>\n
As a result, “coffee production has decreased over the last few years”.<\/p>\n
He added that climate change was intensifying the spread of diseases in coffee plants.<\/p>\n
Mr Murigi said there had been a significant increase in coffee leaf miners, bugs that feed on coffee leaves, and coffee berry disease, a destructive fungal infection that can wipe out more than 80% of crops.<\/p>\n
To deal with the increasing outbreaks, farmers are resorting to using herbicides and insecticides that can damage soil quality in the long term and also pose health risks.<\/p>\n
Farmers use dangerous herbicides like Roundup, which contain glyphosates known to cause cancers – banned in some European countries – to ensure they get a good harvest.<\/p>\n
Pest Control Products Board (PCPB) of Kenya, in charge of regulating the use of these products, did not respond to a BBC request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\nThe beans that are harvested are washed and dried near the farm [Kate Stanworth]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
To produce a single cup of coffee can require up to 140 litres of water – including the water to grow the plants.<\/p>\n
But in Kenya’s fertile Rift Valley, higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns mean a decreasing water supply for coffee farmers.<\/p>\n
Farmer Joseph Kimani told the BBC that the “river levels have gone down a lot” due to erratic weather, such as periods of drought and heavy rains.<\/p>\n
He said that because of the lack of rain, farmers are forced to use more river water.<\/p>\n
But this increased reliance on river water, driven by the lack of rainfall, may be further straining the already limited water supply.<\/p>\n
While Mr Murigi acknowledges the rise in water use by coffee farmers, he denies this is why the river is drying up.<\/p>\n
However, with 23 coffee societies in this region, a significant amount of water is clearly being used in the coffee growing process in Kiambu County.<\/p>\n
Komothia’s story is not unique. As global temperatures and droughts increase, good coffee will become difficult to grow in all parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\nOnce the beans are dried they are then usually exported for further processing [Kate Stanworth]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Coffee can only be grown in the “coffee belt” – tropical regions around the world in areas typically located at an altitude of between 1,000m and 2,000m.<\/p>\n
In recent years, climate change has led to a shortage of global coffee supplies and an increase in the price of coffee due to drought and crop failures in several key coffee-producing nations such as Brazil and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
A survey by Fairtrade International, the organisation behind Fairtrade labels, found that 93% of Kenyan coffee farmers are already experiencing the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n
The coffee industry in Kenya is a key source of employment, providing jobs for an estimated 150,000 people.<\/p>\n
To protect the industry, coffee farmers in areas like Komothai are experimenting with climate adaptation techniques, such as planting trees to provide extra shade for the coffee plants.<\/p>\n
Mr Murigi said it is only through addressing both the climate and economic challenges faced by Kenyan coffee farmers that they can have a sustainable future.<\/p>\n
However, coffee farmers like Mr Macharia are pessimistic about the industry’s future.<\/p>\n
“Right now, as things stand, I don’t think any parent wants their child here farming coffee,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\nJohn Murigi is worried about the impact the changing climate is having on the farmers he represents [Kate Stanworth]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n