Climate change is redrawing the coffee growing map. Here's how farmers are clinging on

Harvesting coffee is a delicate process that occurs just once per year in the plant’s 20 year lifetime, and only after reaching around four years old.

The perennial tree must take root in temperate conditions, and pass a series of milestones before it can blossom.

But climate change is throwing the €458 billion global coffee market - of which Europe represents the largest consumer share - into flux.

Most coffee is produced in highland tropical regions. But researchers have found that rising temperatures could reduce the areas suitable for growing coffee by 50 per cent.

This redrawing of the global coffee map poses devastating risks; not only to national economies such as Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Brazil, India and Madagascar. It would also crush the livelihoods of coffee farmers - 70 per cent of whom run small-scale operations.

The long lifespan of the tree is a distinct challenge to this majority, explains Dr Christian Bunn from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

Small-scale farmers need to invest in alternative farming methods now to survive in the future, but investments are costly and may not result in the higher production yields desired.

Indoor farming techniques fall at the pricier end of the investment portfolio.

While Bunn is not aware of any coffee farmers currently adopting vertical, indoor or hydroponic farming methods, researchers are exploring these possibilities.

Vertical farming and indoor farming would allow for greater control of resources like water, light and exposure to wind, all of which can be unruly in the open field.

“Technically it is possible to grow coffee trees, let's say in a greenhouse,” says Bruno Telemans, a perennial and horticulture crops specialist at the UN’s FAO.

But