Cows, coffee and climate change - farmers from Wales and Uganda discuss common challenges
“Climate change is a threat we live with on a daily basis,” shared Jenipher Sambazi, a coffee farmer in Uganda and face of the Welsh coffee brand ‘Jenipher’s Coffi’ while meeting Teleri Fielden, who farms in the Snowdonia National Park in north Wales.
Teleri, who also works as a Policy Officer for the Farmers’ Union of Wales shared, "As two farmers from mountainous areas, despite producing very different products, we face many common challenges - and there’s a lot that we can learn from one another. Unpredictable incomes and changing weather, including new and more severe threats of pests are shared challenges for farmers from Wales to Uganda.”
Teleri and her husband Ned are tenant farmers producing “Biodiversity Beef and Lamb” from their stock of native cattle and sheep, which graze diverse pastures and landscapes to conserve and strengthen local biodiversity. They sell directly to customers through a subscription box scheme.
Jenipher, the vice-Chair of the Mt Elgon Agroforestry Communities Co-operative Enterprise - MEACCE in short - explained how the 3000 Fairtrade and Organic farmers of her cooperative use techniques including agroforestry to grow specialty coffee, hand in hand with nature. Tree planting brings a multitude of benefits, including anchoring the soil, which, with increasingly heavy rains, gets washed away, together with crops, homes and human casualties.
Ffion Storer Jones, Jenipher’s Coffi Co-Founder who coordinated the exchange shared, “Farming faces enormous pressures globally, but by standing together and acting boldly to support farmers, we can build a fairer future. A fair price changes everything - I know this from growing up in a farming family - and that’s why at Jenipher’s Coffi we will always carry the Fairtrade mark."
Emma Jones, one of the facilitators of the Climate Farm Demo Project who joined the exchange added: “It was very interesting, and devastating to learn from Jenipher about how vulnerable farmers in Uganda are to climate change. It highlighted how important it is to support farmers in the face of an increasingly hostile climate to adapt sustainable practices to ensure food security for all."
