This story contains interviews with Kira Angulo, National Federation of Coffee Growers of Columbia account lead at SAP and Diana Osorio, lead for Latin America CSR at SAP.
All last year, problematic weather conditions in Latin America put coffee crops in jeopardy. Mounting temperatures there are thought to have brought on one of the worst recent outbreaks of a disease called coffee rust, which kills the leaves of coffee plants. Guatemala has declared a state of emergency in light of the outbreak, and in Brazil, drought has severely reduced output, increasing coffee prices so much that Starbucks has talked about stopping buying Arabica beans for a foreseen period.
Most of these coffee producers reside in rural areas, with little access to information that could help them manage their businesses better. What if there was a way for small coffee producers to have up-to-the-minute information on climate trends, advice on sustainable farming practices, or coffee market conditions?
Three organizations, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Columbia, SAP, and a U.K. startup called WeatherSafe, are now getting data into the hands of small coffee producers through separate mobile technology projects.
Original source: Fast Company
