Farm­ers in the de­luge prone Bunyala area of Bud­alangi who have tra­di­tion­ally lost their har­vest due to in­cess­ant floods are now as­sured of safety of their har­vests thanks to com­munity granar­ies that are built on dry areas. The granar­ies, built through pool­ing to­gether of re­sources by local farm­ers, en­sure that any­time farm­ers har­vest they place the sur­plus in the granar­ies which they can then get any­time they want for home con­sump­tion and for sale.

Richard Uzero a maize farmer in the area and one of the first farm­ers to em­brace the com­munal granary concept knows just how im­port­ant it means to him and his fam­ily of five. Since early 90’s he has been los­ing about 60 per­cent of his sur­plus har­vest to floods. “I have a small granary in my com­pound. I har­vest around five to six bags of maize every har­vest. I lose about three of the bags to the floods be­cause by the time I pre­serve them for a big­ger mar­ket price the floods have already hit,” he said.

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The com­munity granary built on higher dry area which is not reached by the floods has over 60 farm­ers and stocks dif­fer­ent pro­duce in­clud­ing mil­let, maize, beans and ground­nuts. The granary has a clerk who keeps re­cords of what comes in and out.

Once a farmer brings the pro­duce, he is as­signed a spe­cific mem­ber­ship num­ber and card which lists how many bags or kilos have been brought and the date. The farmer can walk in and out any time to re­move his pro­duce but must pro­duce his mem­ber­ship num­ber and card. “This en­sures that each there is a clean sheet that mon­it­ors what comes in and out. Each farmer is al­loc­ated a space in the granary to avoid con­fu­sion. The space is clearly marked with the mem­ber’s name and num­ber,” said Ethan Njunge the chief clerk at the granary.

Mem­bers have monthly con­tri­bu­tions of Sh250 which goes into the main­ten­ance of the granary and the pay­ment of the clerk. The granary also hosts pro­duce from farm­ers who are non mem­bers but who are charged Sh500 per month to be al­loc­ated space. “Already we have 12 non mem­bers who we are hous­ing,” said Vic­toria Auma the sec­ret­ary of the or­gan­iz­a­tion.

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A study con­duc­ted by Farm Bulb In­ter­na­tional, a not for profit or­gan­iz­a­tion work­ing with small­holder farm­ers across Africa found out that small­holder farm­ers who had in­ves­ted in the com­munity granar­ies had man­aged to in­vest upto 40 per­cent of their yields. “This is not just through sav­ing the pro­duce from floods but is al­low­ing them to pick higher mar­ket prices at a later date when de­mand is high.

That has been one of the biggest in­come gen­er­at­ors for house­holds around here. One farmer man­aged to make Ssh10,000 extra than he would have if he didn’t in­vest in the granar­ies,”said Maria Koba a pro­gramme of­ficer with Farm Bulb In­ter­na­tional.

The rise in temperatures due to climate change is leading to the proliferation of the coffee berry borer, one of the crop's most devastating pests, leading to losses in coffee production at a time when coffee has started to gain its lost glory, scientists at International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology have warned.

Researchers estimate the coffee berry borer causes more than $500m in damages each year globally, and affects 20m coffee producing families worldwide, making it the most costly pest affecting coffee today. According to the researchers, the insects thrive in warmer temperatures, with an increase in temperatures in coffee growing areas now sparking a rapid increase in the insect. This has seen the ICIPE-led team now set out to explain how shifts in the distribution of the pest might affect Arabica coffee production in the future, in order that growers can develop appropriate adaptation strategies.

The scientists are building on their pioneering work published last year, which predicted that even small increases in temperature would have serious consequences on the number of generations, as well as the latitudinal and altitudinal range of the borer, adversely affecting coffee production in East Africa and parts of South America.

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The Arabica coffee grown in Kenya, Ethiopia and Latin America is an especially climate-sensitive crop. It requires just the right amount of rain and an average annual temperature between 64 degrees Fahrenheit and 70 degrees Fahrenheit to prosper. As temperatures rise - Kenya’s average low temperature has increased by about .66 degrees F every decade since 1951, according to the National Meteorological Department - and rains become more variable, Kenyan coffee farmers have suffered increasingly poor yields. Against this backdrop, a subsequent invasion by the insect would be catastrophic.

 Colombia, once the leading coffee exporter in the world, suffered a massive invasion of the insect in the mid 1990’s. It regularly sent abroad more than 12m bags of Arabica coffee each year. But production has not reached that level since 1994, and 2009 was the country’s worst year ever.

At an International Coffee Organization meeting in February, a Colombian coffee representative revealed that the country’s coffee exports had dipped to 7.9m bags last year and that infestation by the borer — along with excessive rainfall and reduced application of fertilizer — was partly to blame. Scientists at ICIPE warn that Kenya too could be heading down the Colombian path. Coffee Berry Borer, also known widely as Broca, is a small beetle native to Africa – though its effects are now global. It destroys crops by using the fruit as a home for its young. The female beetle burrows into the fruit and lays eggs inside.

These eggs hatch and the larvae eat the coffee seeds from the inside out. By doing this they massively reduce income for coffee producers by reducing both yield and quality. In reality, female borers actually kill coffee plants by laying their eggs in the berries. Each female can lay up to 200 eggs, and the resulting damage attracts herbivores and pathogens.

While farmers have been toying with the idea of moving their coffee to higher altitudes where the insect is rare, experts say that the coffee berry borer could also be more difficult to control at higher altitudes, since moving a pest into a new ecosystem makes its behavior harder to predict. For example, insects that could serve as natural enemies to the coffee berry borer may not interact with the beetle in the same way at higher elevations.

“Natural enemies can be very useful in pest control, but their cycle has to be in sync with the pest’s,” said a researcher at ICIPE involved in the study. Moreover, soil conditions at higher altitudes might not be suitable for Arabica coffee. The scientists therefore suggest that a more practical way to adapt to the rising temperatures is to introduce shade trees in coffee plantations, as this considerably improves the microclimate and favours the growth of coffee.

Studies from the Integrated Pest Management Centre have shown that shade trees can reduce the temperature around coffee leaves by 3 degrees F to 7 degrees F, depending on the environment. There is also evidence that shade-grown coffee plants produce higher-quality coffee. But many coffee growers have cut down the trees around their coffee plants in order to increase sun access.

The ICIPE scientists are likewise encouraging coffee farmers to intercrop their plants with bananas, known to boost coffee yields, to reduce the impact of the borer.

A meeting of African scientists early this year to address the dangers of climate change in agriculture said that Africa’s arable land was expected to shrink by 60m to 90m hectares by 2030 as the impact of climate change sets in.

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Kenya exported 421m kg of coffee last year after a long lull in production due to farmers’s discontent with a poor paying crop. The government invested heavily in resuscitating the coffee industry by paying heavy incentives to farmers to encourage them to invest in the coffee.

Although coffee Robusta traditionally dominated in the country, in the last decade the government has been encouraging farmers to invest in coffee Arabica which is preferred in the international market due to its richer flavour.

“Although we are looking at all avenues of containing the coffee borer insect thanks to timely research by our institutions, we are worried of what this might do to the coffee industry that has struggled so much to pick up. We are however in constant communication with the research institutions on how we will train farmers on fighting the pest,” said Dr Mworia from the Ministry of Agriculture.