2°C warming could wipe out Ugandan coffee sector

That Africa will suffer disproportionately from global warming is already well known. African farmers are already battling to adjust to no-longer predictable seasons.

A Reuters report dramatizes the possible effects of global warming with the predication of a climate expert that just a 2 degree centigrade rise in temperature could decimate the coffee growing sector in East Africa, a key part of the region's economy.

Philip Gwage, Uganda's deputy commissioner of meteorology told the news agency, "If we have an increase of 2 degrees centigrade in Uganda, coffee-growing areas would be drastically reduced to less than a tenth of their current size (in hectares). For coffee to grow you need certain temperatures (and) amounts of water. If temperatures go above certain limits, you would not be able (to grow it)." He said it would be the same for other east African coffee growers, but not top producer, Ethiopia, whose high altitude would keep the climate there cool.

The average temperature in Uganda's coffee-growing area now is about 25° C. Gwage said that although there are no accurate predictions on local climate, a 2-degree rise was a "realistic expectation". Scientists at a U.N. panel on climate change last month predicted that the world will warm up by between 1.8 and 5.4 degrees centigrade on average by the end of the century, largely as a result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Gwage urged farmers to use irrigation systems to store water for when the weather is dry. He also said more drought resistant crops like mango trees should be grown with coffee.