Trouble brewing for morning coffee

Although commercial coffee growers would still be able to cultivate crops in plantations designed with the right conditions, experts say the loss of wild arabica, which has greater genetic diversity, would make it harder for plantations to survive long-term and beat threats like pests and disease.

A study by researchers at Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in collaboration with scientists in Ethiopia found that 38 to 99.7 percent of the areas suitable for wild arabica will disappear by 2080 if predictions of rising temperatures pan out.

Because coffee is a highly climate-dependent crop, the increase of a few degrees of average temperature in growing regions can put at risk the future of Arabica coffee and the livelihood of millions of people who grow and produce it.

The extinction of arabica coffee is a startling and worrying prospect, said Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, who led the study. In a telephone interview, he said the findings made it even more important for organisations such as the World Coffee Research collaboration to continue work to improve the genetic strength of cultivated arabica by preserving wild types.

Researchers used computer modelling to analyse the influence of rising temperatures on the geographical distribution of wild arabica coffee.

The results, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLOS ONE, showed

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