CIAT Project to Help Coffee Farmers Adapt to Climate Change

Coffee is a well-known stimulant that helps keep people awake during those long hours of work and study. Now, with the advent of  climate change in Central America, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has been stimulated to begin a five year project called Coffee Under Pressure. Along with a U.S. development agency, Catholic Relief Services, CIAT will study the impact of the changing climate such as rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall on the coffee production of Central America. They hope to identify ways in which coffee farmers can adapt and maintain their level of production.

The project is one of four recipients of Green Mountain Coffee Roaster's Changing Climate Change Grant, which will provide $800,000 to organizations working to address climate change. It is set to begin in June 2009, and will first focus on the coffee production of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, and would then move on to El Salvador and Mexico.

The article can be viewed at: http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/newsroom/release_37.htm