Visser, M. (2021) The water footprint of Arabica and Robusta coffee bean production in South America. Bachelor thesis.
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Abstract
Climatic changes such as rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns have had a global influence for the past number of decades. These changes also relate to agricultural production. With the influence of these climatic changes of the past decades, the production of the Arabica and Robusta coffee bean in South America is also at risk. Higher temperatures and changing precipitation patterns lead to uncertainties regarding water usage. The water footprint is used to determine the ratio between rainwater and irrigation water for crop production. To see how climatic changes over the past number of decades have already influenced blue water usage, a regression analysis was performed using climatic data by the IPCC combined with an index for calculating blue water usage by Arabica and Robusta coffee beans. With the current climatic changes, the ratio between blue and green water will shift to blue water as more ground- and surface water is required to irrigate coffee beans in order to sustain production. This can lead to issues of water scarcity and to overcome this, the production of these crops on the South American mainland may need to shift to other regions on higher altitudes and local farmers may need to differentiate and grow different kinds of crops more suitable to the adapted climate. However, moving coffee bean production elsewhere can have serious socio-economic and ecological consequences. Farmers differentiating to other types of agricultural production can lead to a loss of jobs. Moreover, issues of water scarcity can lead to higher food prices contributing to the threat of loss of local food security.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Degree programme: | Human Geography and Planning |
| Supervisor: | Mallon, G. |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Jul 2021 15:01 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Jul 2021 15:01 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3545 |
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