Hit by climate change, Latino farmers go for cocoa

Ayala said his plantation - situated between 600 and 1,000 metres (1,969-3,281 feet) above sea level in the south-central department of La Paz - had been ideal for growing coffee. But with rising temperatures, production became difficult.

In the last four years, recurring drought, a plague of coffee borer beetles, and other problems linked to climate shifts put his coffee plantation on the ropes. The farmer tried sowing varieties resistant to a widespread fungus called roya (coffee rust), which affects the leaves and harms bean production, but that failed to protect his harvest. In low-lying areas, many producers have abandoned their crops, or sold their land to urban developers. But Ayala started to study the benefits of cocoa, including its low cost of production, good price on international markets, and environmental value such as protecting water basins and wildlife. 

“People here are starting to cultivate cocoa in zones where before there was coffee,” the farmer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Drought and climate change are making it impossible to work with coffee, so we produce cocoa now.” 

Mexico and Central America, which together produce one fifth of the world’s Arabica coffee beans, have been hit hard by roya and the volatility of coffee prices in the last few years. “The situation has led many producers to change from coffee to cocoa. It is happening step by step,” said Nicaraguan farmer Luis Moreno, referring to growers in Jinotega department, one of the country’s principal coffee regions. Where they have coffee, they get a harvest and then take out (the plant) – so now they are left only with cocoa cultivation,” he said. 

Moreno is technical coordinator for the People’s Community Action Association (APAC), which has been giving cocoa plants and technical help to small producers since 2014. He says the program has been a success so far. The farmers find it cheaper to grow cocoa because it needs fewer workers and around 40 percent less investment in inputs than coffee, while international prices are buoyant. “It is more profitable,” Moreno said. According to VECO, a Belgium-based NGO that works with small-scale farmers in developing countries, Central America has around 25,000 cocoa producers, spread across Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, growing cocoa on roughly 12,700 hectares (31,382 acres).