There is such a climatic and natural phenomenon as El Nino in the world. It affects the agricultural processes of many countries around the world. In particular, it has a strong impact on coffee that grows on plantations, which leads to annual fluctuations in its quantity and quality available to consumers. This article aims to analyze what this phenomenon is, how it affects coffee, and what other manifestations of its influence it has.
What is El Nino?
El Nino is a global warming change in the weather on the planet that occurs when waters in the central and eastern Pacific oceans near the equator become warmer than usual. In contrast, there is the phenomenon of cooling La Niña. El Nino occurs when winds that normally blow from East to west across the Pacific Ocean weaken or change direction. These winds push warm water towards Asia, leaving colder water near South America. As the wind weakens, warm water spreads across the ocean towards the Americas, changing ocean currents and weather patterns around the world.
General effects of El Nino
1. Global warming effect: El Nino temporarily raises the Earth's average temperature.
2. Droughts. Regions such as Australia, Southeast Asia, South America, and parts of Africa experience severe droughts.
3.Heavy rains and floods: regions such as South America and the southern United States may experience heavy rainfall and flooding (i.e., South America may experience both floods and droughts at the same time).
4. Stronger hurricanes.
5. Destruction of fish and marine life by warmer waters.
Does the planet need El Nino?
It itself is not "good" or "bad" for the planet — it is a natural part of the Earth's climate system. It plays an important role in redistributing heat from the ocean to the atmosphere. Without cycles like El Niño and La Niña, heat and energy can accumulate unevenly on the planet, which can lead to even more extreme and unpredictable weather. Thus, these phenomena maintain the balance of the global climate system of the planet.
The effect of El Nino on coffee
Given coffee, especially high-quality coffee, El Nino usually has a negative impact. Thus, the most typical impact of El Nino is the explosion of the coffee driller pest population to the level of 105% of its usual amount and an increase in the share of low — quality grains in the total volume — up to 6% or even up to 9% (in some regions of the world-up to 15%).
Low-grade coffee is formed due to increased exposure to pests (not only driller, but also red spider, leafworm and others) and diseases, as well as an increase in the number of defects in the grains, such as drying of grains, blackening of grains, problems with development or the formation of more berries of mediocre quality. The good thing is that El Nino has less impact in regions above 7 ° north latitude and below 3° north latitude, without acting sharply globally across the planet. And El Nino begins its influence in the second half of the year, between august and december..
Due to El Nino, precipitation decreases from -13% to -29%, sunlight becomes from 3% to 8% more, and the maximum temperature increases from +0.4° C to +1.5° C. If droughts due to El Nino last longer than 30 days, coffee blooms worsen, flowers may not form at all, and the development of coffee cherries will be weak. Coffee cherries dry out more, even to a ratio of 5:1 (5 good berries to 1 bad, that is, up to 17% of the crop is lost). However, plants may have lower growth, which reduces the potential of the next crop.
In addition, the harvest time may change due to changes in the growing season, and therefore it becomes more difficult to predict when farmers need to attract additional labor to harvest. Heavy rains, if they occur rather than droughts, can lead to soil erosion, damaging coffee plantations and reducing their long-term productivity. As for the larger shifts, climate changes caused by El Nino may force farmers to move their plantations to other areas or change their activities. This is not easy to do financially for most farmers. In addition, it causes a strong social tension.
Other global impacts of El Nino
In the list below, we've compiled other effects of El Nino:
1. Global increase in the planet's temperature.
2. Increased hurricanes, typhoons, floods, droughts, and forest fires.
3.Crop failures of a large number of other agricultural crops.
4. Global shortage of fresh water, which also undermines hydropower.
5. Spikes in prices for agricultural products.
6. Changes in fishing due to violations of fish migration patterns.
7. The spread of diseases, including malaria and dengue fever.
8. Economic downturn in the affected regions.
9. Increased insurance indemnities due to intense natural disasters.
10. Increased population migration.
11. Acidification of the ocean, changes in its temperature, destruction of marine ecosystems, including coral reefs.
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