Rediscovered wild coffee species could help climate-proof drink’s future
A rare species of coffee rediscovered in the wild after decades could secure the future of great-tasting brews in the face of climate change, scientists said.
According to tasting by independent experts, the enigmatic narrow-leaved coffee (Coffea stenophylla) from West Africa has a flavour similar to high-end Arabica, the world's most popular coffee which is at risk from climate change.
But stenophylla tolerates much higher temperatures than Arabica, and, as the world warms, it could help farmers whose livelihoods depend on supplying highquality coffee for the multibillion pound global industry.
It could be grown commercially in much warmer places than Arabica and be used as a breeding resource to produce new, climate-resilient crops to meet the world's desire for a good cup of coffee.
But action is needed to safeguard the species in the wild, where it is threatened with extinction, and in other sites and evaluate its full potential, the scientists said.
Researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the University of Greenwich, Cirad (the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) and Sierra Leone, have published the results of a study into the stenophylla species in the journal Nature Plants.
Coffee is under threat from climate change, which is pushing up temperatures, causing rainfall to decline or become increasingly erratic, and helping pests and diseases spread.
Farmers face having to move to higher altitudes, change their cultivation practices or find new species to grow.
Arabica coffee currently accounts for more than half (56 per cent ) of global production of the beverage, but it originates from the highlands of Ethiopia and South Sudan in the wild and grows in cool tropical conditions.
While another commercial coffee crop, Robusta, grows in higher temperatures and is resistant to coffee leaf rust disease, it may need just as much rainfall and does not have the superior taste of Arabica, the study said.