Coffee leaf rust is a one of the coffee industry's best examples of the need for building resilience. It is the result of 'traditional' pests and problems, made worse by climate change. There is hope for a bright side to this problem which is threatening the survival of 400,000 smallholder coffee farmers in Mexico, Central and South America. Maybe with the attention this 'natural disaster' is bringing, some of the long-standing, intractable problems like food security, income diversification and insufficient research on coffee plant pathology will be addressed, along with addressing the acute pain of the current situation.
News about the $23 million Coffee Farmer Resilience Initiatve is one reason to have this hope. Watch this video to hear Rajiv Shah, head of USAID, discuss the initiative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?utm_content=6215193&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&v=sEJ1rC72FOs
And to learn even more, I refer you to Root Capital's blog of May 28, 2014: Click here.
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| Photo credit: Root Capital |
