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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Nicaragua's Coffee Farmers Switch To Cocoa
As Climate Changes
MANAGUA - Cocoa, known around the world as
the basic ingredient used for chocolate, is
slowly changing the fortunes of Nicaragua's
coffee farmers as they seek ways to adapt to
a changing climate.
In recent years, coffee producers in the
heart of the country's coffee growing region
in the north-central Jinotega highlands have
seen coffee production decline as a result
of weather changes, prompting farmers to
turn to cocoa as an alternative cash crop.
Coffee farmers in Nicaragua first noticed
erratic weather, linked to global warming
and deforestation, about ten years ago.
Hurricanes, rising temperatures, drier
spells and heavier rains have become more
common.
All this has taken a toll on coffee crops,
which do not flourish in hotter
temperatures. Cocoa, a scarlet red and green
fruit shaped like an elongated melon,
however, thrives in the heat.
"Coffee used to grow well because of the
cool climate but with global warming it
doesn't grow so well anymore," said Miguel
Angel, a small coffee farmer whose family
has relied on coffee sales as its only
source of income for generations. "Cocoa is
growing really well. I think it can help
families here earn a better living."
The production of high-quality coffee beans
has fallen by around a quarter in recent
years. The high-quality beans are sold to
markets in the United States and Europe and
are one of Nicaragua's major cash crops and
main exports but the rising temperatures
leads to poorer quality beans and a smaller
harvest.
PILOT PROJECT
Miguel Angel belongs to Soppexcca, a local
association of 18 small-scale coffee farming
cooperatives, which is taking part in a
pilot project to help its members grow cocoa
with the help of UK-based charity Christian
Aid.
Forty-four coffee farmers have been given
cocoa seedlings to plant in small plots of
land. They also take part in a three-week
training course about producing high quality
cocoa beans, including pest and disease
control, the use of organic pesticides, and
the proper storage of cocoa pods.
Coffee farmers are gradually setting aside
more and more land to grow cocoa alongside
coffee, and they hope to replace all coffee
crops with cocoa plants within the next five
or so years.
So far, Miguel Angel has ripped up around
four acres of coffee to plant cocoa, which
when mature he hopes will bring in an extra
$650 a year.
News about the promising pilot project is
getting out, and there is a waiting list of
local coffee farmers wanting to join. Across
the world, 14 million small farmers depend
on cocoa for their livelihoods.
The added benefit of cocoa, which originated
in the Amazon basin thousands of years ago,
is that it can be grown at the same time as
the coffee's traditional 'dead' period when
farmers are not busy harvesting coffee.
"Cocoa keeps families afloat and the extra
money means families can afford to send
their children to school," said Emma Pomfret,
a journalist with Christian Aid, who
recently visited the cooperative.
Profits from cocoa sales in local markets
are being ploughed back in to the
cooperative and are also being used by
farmers to buy an extra hectare or so of
land.
Christian Aid says the Initial coca harvests
have been so promising that the cooperative
hopes to increase the area dedicated to
cocoa farming to 350 acres by next year, and
step up sales of organic cocoa to new
markets.
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