Abstract:
Coffee plays an important role in sustaining millions of livelihoods around the world. The production of Arabica coffee is greatly
affected by the changing climate. Besides suffering from changing climate, coffee is also a contributor to climate change as a result of
greenhouse gases emitted throughout the supply chain. The coffee sector is therefore interested in climate-friendly coffee production methods.
Understanding greenhouse gas emissions from the coffee supply chains is important for evaluating options for climate change mitigation within
the sector. In this study, data from 108 small scale farmers affiliated to three wet mills in Kenya was used to calculate the carbon footprint of
coffee parchment, and identify emission hotspots within different farmer production levels. The results indicate that farmer production level
had a highly significant negative impact on carbon footprint (p<0.0001). The carbon footprint decreased with increase in production level. The
mean farm level carbon footprints for 1kg of fresh coffee cherries were 0.05 kg CO2e, 0.24 kgCO2e and 0.54 kgCO2e for high, medium and low
producers respectively. The main GHG emission hotspot at farm level across all the levels of production was the inputs of organic and
inorganic nitrogen (94%). The mean carbon footprint at processing for 1kg coffee parchment was 2.6 kgCO2e. At the wet mills the major
emission hotspot was the processing wastewater (97%). Mitigation practices proposed therefore focused on the reduction of emissions from
fertiliser use and wastewater treatment.
