Colombian farmers brace for La Niña rains

As Colombia’s coffee farmers fight their way back after an El Niño-driven drought, they now face the prospect of further devastation in the form of La Niña rains and the potential diseases they could bring. It is feared that the La Niña rains could bring with them further outbreaks of coffee leaf rust, just four years after the last outbreak cut the national crop yield to just 7.7 million bags. Drought has already severely effected many Colombian coffee farmers this year, but the prospect of another rust outbreak looms as even more devastating. The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation has been working with farmers across the country to help renovate their crops to rust-resistant coffee varieties over recent year to mitigate the effect of another outbreak.