CafeClima: Grow Smarter Coffee

What is CafeClima?

CafeClima is a decision-support tool that helps identify coffee varieties best suited to current and future climate conditions. It combines climate projections with real-world coffee variety performance data to support climate-resilient variety selection.

As climate change alters temperature and rainfall patterns in coffee-growing regions, choosing the right variety is becoming a critical factor for sustaining productivity, quality, and farmer livelihoods.

Explore the tool

How does CafeClima work?

CafeClima integrates:

Downscaled climate projections (from ACLIMATAR)
Global arabica coffee variety trial data from real field experiments

The tool identifies climate analogs: trial sites whose climate conditions resemble the current or future climate of a user-selected region. Varieties that performed well in those analogous conditions are highlighted as promising options.

Users can filter results based on: Rust resistance, plant stature, propagation method

The tool is free to use and accessible through a user-friendly web interface.

In which context is CafeClima useful?

CafeClima is designed for:

Coffee field technicians and extensionists
Researchers and breeding programs
Decision makers and development practitioners
Organizations supporting adaptation, adoption, and scaling of climate-resilient coffee systems

This tool is most useful in the translation and deployment phases of the research pathway, including variety recommendation and targeting, extension and advisory services, program and investment planning, scaling climate-resilient varieties

It also supports research prioritization by highlighting performance gaps and climate-related trade-offs.

What results does the tool provide?

The tool currently covers the top 25 coffee-producing countries, representing over 95% of global arabica coffee production, across: Central and South America, East Africa and Southeast Asia

CafeClima draws on: 20 trial sites and 25–26 leading arabica coffee varieties

Results are applicable across major coffee regions and support the uptake of high-performing varieties, contributing to:

Increased productivity
Improved quality
Greater climate resilience across the coffee sector

Variations, scaling and adaptations

The platform is designed to be replicable and scalable:

The underlying climate projection data from ACLIMATAR can be applied to other crops (e.g. cocoa)

The climate analog approach can be adapted to different geographies, crops, and trial datasets

This makes CafeClima not only a tool, but a transferable methodological framework for climate-smart crop decision-making.

Tools often used together with this tool

ACLIMATAR for climate adaptation practices beyond variety selection.
Learning course for additional knowledge on issues of climate change.
D4R for multi-criteria shade tree selection and seedling sourcing.
Croppie for coffee yield estimation.
Terra-i for supply chain compliance in the coffee sector (specifically EUDR).