Inspired Education Group expands groundbreaking VR lessons and metaverse pilot in…Drier and hotter climates are wreaking havoc on arabica coffee production in São Paulo and Minas Gerais; global climate change and deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado are the main causes.
“We see that August and September are critical months at the end of the dry season — evapotranspiration, water deficit in the soil. It starts to get critical and we see a lot of fires, a lot of wildfires in the region,” explains Croce. With extreme weather becoming more frequent, the time between climatic stresses in Brazilian coffee plantations is getting shorter, which means that the plants don’t have a chance to fully recover. The effects of a severe drought in 2020 and the worst frost in 27 years in 2021 are still being felt by the highly sensitive arabica species.
“This climate change affects the health of the plant. When you have a healthy plant, it’s unlikely to catch a disease. Or if it does, it resists and fights it off. Now, with the change, it’s a plant that has no defenses,” explains Cintra.From the rugged mountains of Matas de Minas on the border of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, to the rolling hills of Mogiana, in the state of São Paulo, no two coffee-growing regions are the same.
“The main concern is that coffee production requires a structure. It’s not a plant that you can easily move around like a grain crop, which you can produce in 120 days or 90 days, like beans. Farmers are usually specialized, they already have a tradition, they already have experience. That’s why adapting to a perennial crop is very difficult,” explains Zullo Junior.