New CafeClima Platform Supports Climate-Smart Coffee Replanting

A preview of the CafeClima web platform, via worldcoffeeresearch.org.

World Coffee Research (WCR), along with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, today announced the launch of CafeClima, a free web platform designed to help farmers, agronomists, funders and investors make climate-smart coffee replanting decisions.

WCR said the tool addresses a widespread challenge in long-term coffee sustainability as billions of aging coffee trees throughout the world are due for replacement. Meanwhile, climate volatility raises the odds that new plantings will underperform if coffee variety choices don’t account for future conditions. 

Addressing Risk in Farm Renovation Decisions

WCR points to long-running climate research suggesting that about half the land currently suitable for producing arabica coffee could become unsuitable by 2050.

Meanwhile, a 2017 USAID guidebook on renovation and rehabilitation estimated that approximately 4 million hectares of smallholder coffee farmland — equivalent to the harvested area of Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Ethiopia — is in need of renovation.  

According to an estimate shared by the nonprofit WCR today, governments and supply chain actors have invested approximately $1.2 billion in renovation and rehabilitation in coffee farms over the past two decades, yet those efforts “have reached only about 5% of the 11.5 million smallholder farmers who urgently need new coffee trees.”

A preview of the CafeClima web platform, via worldcoffeeresearch.org.

“The world needs to replace billions of coffee trees. The only thing more costly than inaction is action without insight,” WCR CEO Jennifer “Vern” Long said in an announcement today. “If the industry invests in planting millions of trees today that cannot survive the climate of 2040, we haven’t just lost capital — we’ve lost a crucial decade for coffee sector adaptation.”

The launch of CafeClima follows a recent TechnoServe report that calls for a seven-year, $4 billion investment from coffee companies and other supply chain actors in regenerative, climate-resilient coffee systems. TechnoServe supported the development of the CafeClima platform, with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Targeted funding also came from Taylors of Harrogate and Coffee Circle, according to WCR. 

What CafeClima Promises

CafeClima is designed to translate climate projections and real-world variety performance data into practical guidance for replanting. The platform draws on WCR’s ongoing International Multilocation Variety Trial (IMLVT), a global initiative testing top-performing coffee varieties on research plots throughout the world. 

Within CafeClima, users can view localized climate data and projections, identify “climate analogs” — places today that resemble a target location’s projected climate in 2050 — and compare performance results for top arabica varieties across diverse environments.

“CafeClima is a unique decision-support tool that informs climate-resilient coffee combining variety selection with climate information able to reduce future uncertainty,” Eric Rahn of the Alliance of Bioversity International said.  

The platform is free in both English and Spanish. 

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