Thursday, March 28, 2024

Kenyan Farmers Turn to Avocados in The Face of a Changing Climate

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As a widespread drought was devastating crops in Kenya, Steve Mbugua, a farmer in Nyeri county, decided to clear his half-acre plot of land with coffee plants. He then planted Hass avocadoes.

It was a wise decision, even if some of his neighbors questioned it at first.

Coffee is one of Kenya’s most important cash crops and the country is the fifth largest coffee-producer in Africa with annual yields of around 40,000 metric tons of beans.

But coffee plants require plenty of watering. During prolonged droughts in Kenya, many coffee plantations experience severe water shortages, which can cause berries to shrivel up or fail to appear at all.

As a result, vast amounts of coffee can be lost, posing risks to livelihoods in hard-up communities, which has been a concern to agricultural experts. The situation is worsened by climate change as rainfall patterns are becoming increasingly erratic across Africa.

“After the coffee flowered, the rains should have, under normal circumstances, continued through April and May but this abrupt disappearance triggered some berry formation to abort,” Charles Waturu, a local agricultural crop scientist, explained last year.

“Since the rains are yet to come, even young berries that might have survived might as well end having premature formation whose value and quality will be poor due to lack of rainfall,” he added. Read more…

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