The aim is to have seeds ready for the planting season next May.According to Peter Jones, a CIAT scientist who worked on a similar project in Rwanda in 1995, this kind of technology is likely to play an increasingly important role in disaster relief in future.
Compiled by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia, it contains 90 layers of information gathered over four years, including details of soil type, crop distribution, climate, population and topography, along with every town, village, road, bridge, marketplace and water pump in Honduras.
The CIAT study that mapped the suitability of Arabica coffee to adapt to climate change concludes that in order to thrive, coffee plantations will need to be protected by shade trees to keep them cool.
According to a widely cited 2011 study (pdf) from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), cacao beans – the raw ingredient in chocolate – will become much less plentiful over the next few decades.
According to a report from CIAT, higher temperatures affect flowering and seed production in bean vines, reducing yields by as much as 25%.
Matthias Jager, a market and value chain expert at CIAT, also found that increased income had allowed quinoa producers to diversify their diets with meats, fruits and vegetables while maintaining quinoa as a source of valuable protein.
According to Peter Laderach, a co-author of the CIAT report, Brazil's highly mechanised, commercial coffee production is not suitable for intercropping with trees.
Andrew Jarvis, Leader of the Decision and Policy Analysis Program at CIAT, says that, while chocolate and coffee are not crucial to our survival, studying the impact of climate change on them makes sense, because they can help raise awareness about climate change by "hitting people's soft spots".
"Beans are very sensitive to climate," says CIAT's Jarvis, noting that their need for low temperatures helps explain why they do well in the mountainous regions of East Africa.
If you had the impression during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that Elena Kagan was speaking slowly, e-nun-ciat-ing clearly, choosing words of few syllables and punctuating each simple phrase with a sweetly, self-consciously ingratiating smile, you probably were on to something.
Arabica crops will need to move 300 to 500 metres further above sea level in order to survive, according to a new new study by the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).
