Climate-smart perennial systems

Coffee is a major cash crop in the East African highland farming systems. It represents a high proportion of export values at the national level (for example >20% for Uganda). It is also crucial for the sustainability of the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. During a survey in Uganda, smallholder farmers explained that the income generated by coffee had sent their children to school and helped to build permanent houses. Prices of coffee have also been increasing in the past decennia, motivating them to continue growing the crop. Although coffee is a promising cash crop, smallholder farmers that grow coffee are still vulnerable. Soil fertility is declining, pest and disease pressure is increasing, populations are rising, and land is continuously fragmented. Above all, climate change is starting to take its toll and puts further pressure on the coffee-based farming systems—directly, because temperature and rainfall have an impact on the physiology of Arabica coffee, and indirectly because the incidence and severity of certain pests and diseases such as the coffee berry borer and coffee leaf rust will increase