A Perspective explores the potential causes and impacts on the coffee industry of the spread of past Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) epidemics in Latin America and the Caribbean, notably in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, and explores whether and how the stay-at-home orders, labor shortages, unemployment, border restrictions, and global recession tied to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic might reduce crop care and create conditions conducive to other CLR outbreaks, especially in smallholder farms unable to implement expensive preventive measures; steps including increased institutional support and paying smallholder farmers increased farmgate prices could help farmers invest in production systems with improved resilience to socioeconomic disruptions tied to eventual outbreaks, according to the authors.
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Article #20-23212: "Epidemics and the future of coffee production," by Kevon Rhiney et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Kevon Rhiney, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; tel: 908-590-8042; email: < kevon.rhiney@rutgers.edu >, < kevon89@hotmail.com >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences