Climate change hurts coffee production in Kisii

Kisii farmer Evans Nyakundi's interest in coffee farming is fading with each passing day.

Reason: The crop has not been productive due to unpredictable weather.

He said the crop, whose proceeds have over the years helped pay school fees for his children, has lately been producing low yields.

Nyakundi, from Megogo sublocation in Marani subcounty, has been a coffee farmer since 1990 and represents many farmers in the county who are unhappy with the crop.

“Last year and this year, my farm has not produced coffee cherries as expected. The climate has not been good in this part of Nyanza,” he said.

Nyakundi said production on his two-and-a-half acres has reduced from 15,000kgs to 3,000kgs semi-annually. He is now contemplating growing maize if nothing is done to boost coffee production.

Susan Kemunto, another coffee farmer from Kenyoro village, shares similar sentiments with Nyakundi.

“Coffee trees sprout well when there is enough rain, but the cherries get dry when there is drought, making it hard to sell,” she explained.

Kemunto said she used to harvest 10,000kgs of coffee cherries semi-annually from her one-and-a half acres farm, but the yield has dropped to 2,000kgs due to poor weather.

A study by the Kenya Coffee Research Foundation (RSF) indicates that dry cherries may be due to high temperatures, which affect photosynthesis.

This has been explained by Abel Nyasimi Mokoro, an Agricultural Education and Extension lecturer and a PhD student at Kisii University.

“Prolonged drought affects coffee in the sense that the time coffee trees require rainfall for flowering becomes longer, hence increasing the time for maturity,” Mokoro says. 

Speaking on the phone, Evans Bogonko Orina, an agricultural expert in Kisii, said prolonged drought fastens the ripening of coffee cherries, thus compromising the quality and enhancing stunted growth.

“The temperature ranging between 18-24 degrees Celsius is ideal for planting coffee,” he said.

Dr Judith Achieng Odhiambo, the Agriculture Education and Extension head of department at Kisii University, said high temperatures impact the soil negatively.

“When elevated temperatures affect the soil, they are also capable of affecting the plant that we grow in this soil. They will interfere with the soil biosphere –the activities that go around the soil in that they affect the living organisms affecting their actions,” Odhiambo said.

According to a 2020 report by the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service, Kenya experienced stagnant coffee production of about 650,000 bags in 2020-21.

The report indicates that climate change has caused prolonged droughts and unpredictable rainfall, causing sub-optimal flowering of coffee trees.

 Odhiambo proposes two solutions to address climate change for increased crop production.

“The climate change is with us, but we can come up with mechanisms to mitigate its impacts to continue growing our crops. The second alternative is adaptation. For coffee, breeding can be done so that we get more adaptable coffee varieties,” she said.

Kisii Central subcounty forestry officer Charles Nyatichi said the Kenya Forest Service is leading a tree-planting drive across the county to increase forest cover as a way of addressing the challenges of climate change.

“Increasing tree coverage in Kisii county will go a long way in mitigating the effects of climate change. Therefore, we expect to have more rain in Kisii which will lead to sustainable agricultural development in future,” he said.

The decrease in coffee production has also been associated with lack of fertilisers and the uprooting of coffee trees by farmers due to low profits.

James Ogero, a farmer from Gesonso village, said apart from poor rainfall patterns and drought, farmers no longer receive fertilisers from coffee unions, a concern also raised by Nyakundi.

“We used to get fertilisers and pesticides for our coffee farms but nowadays, we no longer get these inputs, which is why coffee production has gone down,” Nyakundi said.

Low pricing has also caused several farmers to uproot the crop.

Responding to farmers’ concerns earlier this year, Agriculture CS Peter Munya urged them to take their coffee cherries to the New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union for milling and avoid brokers.

The Kisii county government recently gave a directive that bars all the 22 coffee cooperative societies from milling coffee from outside the county.

Gusii Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union (GCFCU) will be responsible for milling and marketing of coffee to increase farmers’ earnings.

The county government is also registering 55,000 farmers biometrically to store data for improved coffee production and income.

Speaking during the launch of a biometric registration exercise in Nyamache subcounty in June this year, Kisii Agriculture executive Esman Onsarigo said the process will block fraudsters.

“We want to know how many coffee farmers we have in Kisii county, where they are located, the number of trees they have, how many kilos they can produce, and when the government comes in to help them with subsidies, we can know how much support they require,” he said.

Edited by A.N