Lessons from Cooperative La Hermandad, Part 2: "One Cannot Live by Coffee Alone"

A short review of the coffee rust epidemic and the limits of relying on coffee as a primary source of income

Coffee Rust: An Epidemic of International Proportions

Coffee tree flowering in April

About halfway up the climb to Cooperative La Hermandad’s farm in the mountains of Matagalpa, small family farms and open pastures give way to massive orchards of a single crop: coffee. High quality Arabica coffee is grown in Nicaragua on the steep mountainsides at altitudes over 3,000 feet above sea level. When healthy, each tree bears vibrantly green leaves and small white flowers which bud into coffee cherries that will grow and ripen to a deep red or yellow for harvest, starting in October. This year, though, one can see from the road countless hauntingly skeletal trees and recently cut stumps clumped and scattered throughout the fields. These are the first victims of a coffee rust epidemic in Central America that could continue to affect millions of farmers.

 Coffee rust ("la roya") is not a new disease. It arrived in the region about 40 years ago, but until last year, farmers had been able to hold it at bay. In the 2012-2013 harvest, that changed, and the fungus swept down the region from southern Mexico. Several Central American nations declared a state of emergency, as farmers experience massive losses due to the rust. In Guatemala, for instance, coffee rust affected 70% of the country’s crop. In Nicaragua, there has been much debate over steps the government should take to intervene, and civil society groups have been mobilizing to call for action. Because for Nicaraguan farmers, coffee is not just a morning pick-me-up, it is a means of survival.

Coffee, Climate, and Credit

Coffee rust claimed only a small percentage
of this year's crop at La Hermandad, but
Nicaragua has likely not seen the last of it.

The exact causes of the rust outbreak and rapid spread are unclear, but the most widely recognized culprit is climate change.  Climate change is believed to have resulted in rising temperatures and irregular rainfall patterns that have both facilitated the fungus’ (Hemileia vastatrix) growth. Lower altitude farms with warmer, wetter climates were the most severely affected, though the rust has also been creeping its way into the mountains.

Marvin Mairena, who lives and works on La Hermandad's coffee farm, immediately sites climate change as the primary issue, but also points to a lack of access to credit as a contributing factor. There has been little affordable credit available to farmers for field maintenance, so many continue producing with old trees (as much as 50 years old or more) that are more susceptible to rust and are not as resistant as some new varieties of trees. Fungicides (a short term solution) are likewise often too costly for small farmers, who can generally only cover the bear minimum of their production expenses while still providing for their families. 

Marvin says that large scale farmers have the best access to credit are the most productive these days. They are also those who have greatest access to the benefits of higher prices that come with labels such as Green Mountain Coffee and Rainforest Alliance, which require farmers to pay annual fees and submit complex documentation to apply for certification. The required forms can be difficult to suss out for farmers living in a region where even today only one in ten rural students has access to a secondary education.

One of La Hermandad's coffee orchards

The lack of credit and opportunities to participate in alternative coffee markets (not to mention the separate issue of high import tariffs imposed by the US on toasted coffee that strongly discourage—though don't totally prevent—farmers from adding value to their product) indicate that while the rhetoric around coffee rust in the media revolves around climate change, there are also social and economic factors that have contributed to the rust's rapid takeover.

“One Cannot Live by Coffee Alone”

Apart from coffee rust, the members of La Hermandad also suffered from the effects of extreme weather, high interest rates, and low coffee prices. Last year, a period of drought in October and November inhibited plants' development. The drought was followed by torrential rains in December and January that knocked many precious coffee cherries to the ground. 

La Hermandad's coffee
could be as close to home
as your local Target. 

Furthermore, one member heavily involved in administration Sebastian Mairena explained to me that, as mentioned above, the affordable credit generally provided by the regional cooperative union was scarce this year, forcing farmers to take out loans at high interest rates (up to 34% annually) from microfinance institutions. The higher costs of production in turn failed to be offset at the time of sale, as the international price for La Hermandad’s highest quality Arabica coffee (which sells for about $10-$14/lb in my hometown) had dropped from $100/100lb bag in 2012 to $53/100lb bag in 2013.

Sebastian predicts that the combination of these factors could lead to a coffee crisis deeper than the one of the late 1990s, which sparked the popularization of the fair trade movement after plunging millions of farmers into a situation of deep poverty, hunger, loss of land, and debt. Though this severe prognosis is far from certain, the difficult situation small and medium sized coffee farmers find themselves in this year is reminder of the harsh truth asserted by fair trade researcher Dr. Bradley Wilson: “One cannot live by coffee alone."

**In the next La Hermandad post I'll take a positive turn and talk about the potential solutions to this problem and the steps we've been taking together toward those solutions.

***Comments are welcome!!!