Climate change seen to propel rust disease in coffee industry

Those still wondering whether global warming has arrived need look no further than Central America, where an epidemic of coffee rust disease (Hemileia vastatrix) has ripped through coffee plantations, savaging coffee production and costing more than 400,000 coffee workers their jobs. Scientists link the outbreak of the disease, the worst in 30 years, to higher rainfall and soaring temperatures. Those factors have pushed the fungal infection in the Central American highlands up to altitudes ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 feet—elevations where coffee farmers had moved in order to escape previous outbreaks. With heavy rains expected in the next few weeks, the crisis could deepen, analysts say. Temperatures in South and Central America have risen by 0.7 to 1 degree centigrade over the last 40... [Log in to read more]

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