La Roya coffee rust, a fungal disease exacerbated by climate change, has devastated coffee crops across South and Central. Coffee farms at altitudes below 1,500 (the majority in the Highlands of Chiapas) are still reeling from the loss of up to 60{bd3998287a4bb664db3e882b50ce8fce85b47aa2f3b8ee94fc583a0e58dc5b61} of their crop.
Our partners in Maya Vinic are now replanting their fields with the Carnica variety – a plant currently resistant to La Roya. However, without quickly implementing new agricultural practices at the community level, experts believe La Roya will begin to affect the Carnica variety within 3 to 5 years; exactly when these new plants are finally beginning to bear harvestable fruit.
Luckily, OTG and our partners have access to an amazing team of agronomists who are traversing the coffee farming highlands of Chiapas as you read this! Angelica and Pablo are working with farmers to implement new agricultural practices via community workshops. However, due to the remote nature of many of these communities, the workshops are difficult to hold and expensive to finance. Please consider joining the growing number of responsible coffee roasters and conscious consumers who support coffee farming families.
