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.
“If it doesn’t start to rain more soon, it likely would mean that next year’s rainy season will be delayed,” said Juan Diego Naranjo, a meteorologist with the IMN. “You could say that this indicates the dry season next year will be extended.”
After months of drought, President Luis Guillermo Solís declared a national emergency in the province of Guanacaste and other cantons across the country on Tuesday. The drought in the northwestern province has been the worst in more than 50 years, according to the National Meteorological Institute.
Officials from the Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) and the Paraíso Municipality on Wednesday agreed to the first steps in addressing ongoing water shortages that in recent months have extended to two additional Cartago cantons.
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.
GUATEMALA CITY – Rain is gradually returning to Guatemala after an extended drought in the middle of rainy season brought tragedy to some of the poorest regions of the country. But many agricultural workers say it’s too late to save their harvests.
BOACO, Nicaragua – The last raindrop fell three months ago, forcing Carlos Román to take his cattle further and further away to find water and keep them alive in Nicaragua's northeastern farmlands.
For decades, residents in Costa Rica's northwestern province of Guanacaste have been drinking water containing dangerously high levels of arsenic. Despite a 2013 order from the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, government agencies still have not provided Guanacastecos with clean drinking water.
On Tuesday, representatives for four public agencies discussed actions they will take to deal with a severe drought in the northern and central Pacific regions of the country.
Farms and tourist areas near the country’s colonial capital, located 22 kilometers east of San José, have been hit hard by water scarcity, including diminished reserves that traditionally supply enough water for the entire province and more than half a million residents in eastern San José.