17 May 2021, Honduras – In the framework of the project “Climate change resilient coffee landscapes” of the Resilient Food Production sector of
the EUROCLIMA+ Programme, the EUROCLIMA+ Programme, the Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE) has published the weather bulletin for the coffee sector in Honduras.
More than 6 years ago, IHCAFE started an epidemiological surveillance process for some common coffee pests, mainly Roya(leaf rust) and Broca(berry borers). Simultaneously, the process of strengthening IHCAFE's agro-climatic system to provide meteorological information from the different coffee growing regions of Honduras began.
In this context, the project is the first effort made to predict the appropriate stages for preventive action against these pests of such importance for coffee growing. Currently, IHCAFE has expanded its network of stations with support from the EUROCLIMA+ programme. This support has also allowed IHCAFE to extend the alerts generated for pest and disease effects and to issue recommendations for the crop.
Thus, the Honduran coffee sector now has the following:
- 10 additional telemetrics compatible with the current system and strategically located.
- An automatic model for the generation of Roya and Broca alerts, using meteorological and monitoring information from sentinel plots.
- Cross-referencing of information from the management model through the vulnerability tool with meteorological data from the stations.
- Monthly bulletins that generate crop management recommendations, weather data and climate projections.
- Monitoring of 24 SAF models with climate-smart agricultural practices.
It is expected that during the first year the technical bulletin will reach exporters, cooperatives and intermediaries, and little by little, through the coffee institutions, all coffee producers in general, as Gabriela Jiménez, coordinator of IHCAFE's Resilient Coffee Landscapes project, commented. "The strengthening of IHCAFE's telemetric network improves the capacities of the coffee sector, as it provides real-time meteorological information, which is essential for the planning of agronomic activities in the crop, the integrated management of pests and diseases based on environmental conditions and for the appropriate adaptation of coffee structures to climate change," said Eng. Cristian Lizardo, coordinator of IHCAFE's Phytosanitary Epidemiological Surveillance unit.
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Weather machine
Furthermore, in the case of Ocotepeque and Copán, which are areas of influence of the EUROCLIMA+ project, in coordination with the Hanns R. Neumann Foundation (HRNS) and different partners, a climate-smart region is being promoted to create an inclusive territorial development model, managed with strategies to boost the economy, based on climate-smart agricultural practices and nature-based solutions for human well-being with a micro-watershed approach.
This includes the establishment of a network of 60 mini-weather stations that will characterise the different microclimates in the area and provide access to real-time weather information for farming families. All the information will be captured by the X-Farm platform, where farmers will be able to store their climatic and on-farm traceability information. This network will allow monitoring of the climate-smart agriculture practices that are being promoted by IHCAFE and HRNS and will help to improve the decision making of the farming families.
About the project
The project "Coffee landscapes resilient to climate change in the Honduran dry corridor" implements productive reforestation activities in coffee plantations, resilient food production, climate change policy and agro-climatic information for the coffee sector.
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More information
Gabriela Nehrning, HRNS: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Resilient Food Production sector:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
