Guatemalan coffee growers, devastated by a fungus known as roya that rots the leaves of coffee plants, must “learn to live” with the killer disease. That’s the sad conclusion of Julio Ligorría, Guatemala’s ambassador to the United States, speaking Wednesday to The Tico Times.
A clean, affordable fuel source for coffee farmers here in the remote hills outside Yali, Jinotega was a byproduct of a of a wastewater management pilot program in Nicaragua sponsored by the sustainable-certification labeling organization UTZ Certified with support from the Dutch government. Along with purifying the acidic wastewater from the coffee milling process, the so-called biogas is helping improve the quality of life for many small farmers here.
A series of pilot projects in Nicaragua funded by the Dutch government and the sustainable certification label UTZ have seen positive results reducing water consumption, treating wastewater and providing farmers with a clean burning fuel as a byproduct.
Growing coffee — a reliable staple in Central America — has become increasingly risky in recent years as climate change has caused evermore extreme weather. But farmers who take on this heightened risk are not reaping greater rewards due to a constellation of factors from volatile coffee markets to droughts to inefficient management, according to experts at Costa Rica's annual Sintercafe coffee trade conference.
Pop icon Alanis Morissette teamed up with Costa Rican percussionist and Latin Grammy winner Carlos ‘Tapado" Vargas to release over the weekend the song “The Morning,” along...
Paying $6 for a java might seem steep to some, but it represents a watershed moment for quality coffee in Costa Rica, a country famous for coffee but historically unable to enjoy it.
A consortium of scientists announced Thursday in Science that they've sequenced the coffee genome for the first time. By determining all of the genes that make up robusta coffee, a plant variety that accounts for about one-third of the world's consumption, they've opened the door to better breeding practices and even genetic engineering.
Central American coffee farmers have struggled with a ravenous fungus, drought and low prices for the last several years, but it looks like the 2014/2015 harvest might start to turn the corner, according to reports from governments across the isthmus. Higher potential production and buoying coffee prices might be the jolt the region needs to kick off its recovery.
