Friday, February 8, 2008

Global Warming Threatens Coffee Production in Uganda

Coffee is a big thing in Uganda because it is the country's biggest export. If you feel that it is just coffee, consider this, coffee contributes more than half of Uganda's revenue. Global warming may create climate change that will affect this country. More sunshine and lack of rain will make the coffee beans shriveled and decrease the yield.

Even now, global warming has started creating problems in Uganda. Lately, rains have become unpredictable and this situation prevents coffee crop to mature sufficiently. Droughts have happened more frequently in the last three years which make the quality of the coffee dropped.

Coffee requires cool temperature and sufficient amount of water. Currently the average temperature in Uganda is around 25 degree Celcius. The United Nations predicts that the earth temperature may increase between 1.4 to 5.8 degree Celcius by the end of this century mainly because of human activities. If this happens, coffee will disappear entirely from Uganda.

Currently coffee farmers try to protect their coffee from global warming. They plant more trees to provide shading for their coffee, they cover the soil with grass to hold more water, and they dig long terraces in the ground to hold more rainwater. They may face a losing battle if we do not contribute in reducing global warming.

Further story concerning this issue can be found in Uganda's lucrative coffee threatened by climate change.

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