Fairtrade is calling for governments and international actors involved in the agricultural sector to give greater support to farmers in addressing climate change.

An article in The Guardian tells the story of Peruvian coffee farmer Raúl Caso Yupanqui who attended the UN climate change conference in Lima to advocate for farmers.

Raúl heads up the Cooperative Agroindustrial Sonomoro in Peru, which has been supported by Fairtrade to become more resilient to climate change, such as through planting shade trees among their coffee bushes.

“I think one of the most important tools in fighting climate change is information. If the farmers don’t get proper information about climate change, then it is impossible to act,” said Raúl.

His cooperative is moving into the next stage of its climate adaptation project which is likely to focus on agroforestry.

“In the past, when the producer received plants or trees to plant amongst the coffee bushes on their farm, they didn’t actually do it, but now they understand that it is a really important way to counter the negative impacts of climate change,” Raúl said.

Fairtrade’s producer networks in Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America have called for urgent action to increase resilience to climate change and access more funding opportunities for climate change adaptation.

Raúl suggested governments encourage farmers to take an agroforestry approach. “That means not just food production, but planting trees, ensuring biodiversity and so on.”

Read the full story: Tackling climate change: a coffee farmer’s view