Joaquin is a father of two. A coffee farmer all his life he has noticed how in recent years, temperatures have risen and rainfall has become heavier. This has increased the risk of landslides and affected his crop production.

“The change in climate is affecting us all because it is making rainfall unpredictable. We no longer know when it’s going to rain and when we can harvest. This means that we need to be more flexible. I have been using different seeds, which can adapt to the change in weather”

In Honduras in recent years, temperatures have risen and rainfall has become heavier – increasing the risk of landslides. It has also become increasingly unpredictable so that people can no longer rely on rain during the traditional rainy season between May and August. Over the past five years, the rainy season has started earlier and earlier. This means it is harder to grow enough food to eat and sell. Heavier rains sweep away newly planted seeds and rot plants.

Joaquin Pacheco, 37, coffee farmer and father-of-two. In an attempt to keep up with the increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns, Joaquin has, over the past three years, been writing down the date of the first rainfalls of the year in an effort to keep up with the change. A coffee farmer all his life, Joaquin has noticed how the hotter and unpredictable rain has affected coffee production. As a result, he has changed the types of coffee he grows and planted trees so that the plants are shaded from the heat. He is also lucky: he has two pieces of land at two different altitudes, which means he can experiment with different types of coffee crops to find which ones are most suitable to the different – yet changing – conditions. Even so, he would like to have a plot higher up the mountain where the climate is now better for growing coffee. But in a country where agricultural land is scarce, this is unlikely.

"I have two coffee farms. One is at 1,080 metres high, the other one is 1,400 metres. The one at the higher altitude produces better coffee. The harvest there is in January to February but it can't produce the same seeds as the one at the lower altitude. The lower-altitude coffee harvests in November.

"My father and grandfather also grow coffee. I remember helping my father harvest coffee in the 1980s - I was around 10 years old. In those days we would harvest in September. I've been growing coffee all my life. In the lower altitudes we used to grow a type of coffee called 'Bourbon' but now we can only produce this coffee at high altitudes.

"The change in climate is affecting us because it is making rainfall unpredictable. We no longer know when it is going to rain and when we will be able to harvest. This means that we need to be more flexible. I have been using different seeds, which can adapt to the change in weather.

"In my 37 years of life I've seen it change a lot, so I worry about how things will change now. I have cultivated trees to act as shade for the coffee because it is hotter. There are more plagues now. We never used to have so many plagues. Right now there are more plagues in the lower altitudes. The fear is that as the temperatures increase, the plagues will move up the mountain. We are told that, in the past, coffee used to grow wild, but now we need various technologies to be able to harvest it.

Oxfam partner OCDIH is developing agricultural projects so that families in west Honduras can grow enough food in the face of climate change. The organisation shares different agricultural techniques and helps families grow different crops that are more resilient to the unpredictable weather. They have helped families build bio-digesters to make methane from manure and use for cooking. Fisheries have also been introduced on people's plots, as well as water filters to recycle household water for the garden. Grasses have been planted along sloping plots to prevent erosion, and others have been shown how terracing can prevent landslides. Reforestation projects have also been implemented, along with training on growing tree saplings. This has helped people boost the production of their gardens so that they can grow enough to feed themselves and take to market. Eco-stoves have also been distributed so that less wood needs to be burned.

Country climate reference: Global Climate Risk Index 2010. Harmeling, Sven

Find out what you can do to help farmers throughout the world cope with the changing climate here at The Brighton Green Pages.

Joaquin 4-w800

Joaquin working on his coffee farm Photo: Lucy Brinicombe / Oxfam

Joaquin holding some of his coffee beans Photo: Lucy Brinicombe / Oxfam

Joaquin holding a contraption he uses to trap pests Photo: Lucy Brinicombe / Oxfam

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