How does rust affect the coffee crop?

Diseases and pests have become a threat to many coffee producers, especially in Latin America.

Rust is one of the most important epidemics in coffee crops and is mainly transmitted through the air. The contagion is clearly visible on the leaves of the plant, where there is a higher concentration of humidity, manifesting itself in the form of small yellow or orange spots.

The disease affects coffee trees by causing infected leaves to fall, which can reduce their yields by up to 50%, since the fungus ends up weakening them considerably.

Water and humid environments are essential for the dispersal and development of rust fungus spores, so rain is required for epidemics to spread, as the spores can survive over long distances, which has favoured the development of the disease worldwide.

Under favorable conditions for the pest (20 and 25°C approximately), the first symptoms begin to appear between 10 and 15 days, needing a couple of weeks more to spread.

Climate change increases plant vulnerability

Climate change is causing temperatures to rise and rainfall patterns to change, which is causing pests and diseases to spread more rapidly and in areas that have not been affected before.

In some producing regions of Latin America, certain changes in climatic conditions have already been observed, such as increases in rainfall and relative humidity as well as changes in temperature, which are causing variations in coffee plantations as the optimum characteristics for the development of the plant are affected, producing stress in the coffee plants and favorable environments to trigger epidemics.

The impact of a rust epidemic in Latin America is incalculable, hundreds of thousands of families depend on this crop and the social and economic losses could be in the millions, which is why research and new techniques should be used to try to stop new outbreaks of the pest.