Coffee farmers switch to cocoa due to climate change

Brimming with shade trees and bounded by the Tuma river, the lower climes of Roger Castellon’s farm in Nicaragua’s mountainous Jinotega department were long ideal for growing coffee. But with temperatures on the rise, the veteran coffee farmer is shifting his lower-lying land to a crop that, although new for him, enjoys a rich legacy in the region: cocoa.

“Coffee is no longer viable due to climate change,” said Castellon, who calls his 420ha farm Los Nogales. Soaring temperatures in Central America, linked to climate change, are forcing many farmers like Castellon to replace coffee trees with cocoa – a crop once so essential to the region’s economy it was used as currency.

Farmers across the region, known for high-quality arabica beans, are still recovering from a coffee leaf rust disease known as roya, which devastated crops over the past four years.


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