Research project title:  Socio-economic characterization of small-holder coffee farmers in Murang’a County, Kenya in a changing climate.

Molly is a DRIP MSc fellow supervised by Dr. Régis Babin (ICIPE) and Dr. Gilbert Ouma (University of Nairobi).  Her research interests include climate resilient agriculture, food security and sustainable livelihoods.

Coffee is a significant agricultural commodity in Kenya contributing to the Goss Domestic Product, foreign exchange and supports livelihoods. In the last decade coffee production has been on a declining trend in the country eroding the farmers’ revenues and escalating poverty levels (ICO, 2015).

Coffee has been proven to be highly sensitive to temperature change (Bunn et al., 2015) and will therefore be affected by the global climate change. Climate Change forecasts by IPCC 2001 have been projected to adversely reduce crop yields. It is therefore expected that coffee production will also be affected and a reduction in yield will translate into loss of livelihoods for the small-holder farmers increasing their vulnerability.

Her research paper titled ‘Socio-economic Characterization of Small-Holder Coffee Farmers in Murang’a County in a Changing Climate’ focusses on the identification of socio-economic and climatic risks in coffee production. The main aim will be to enhance the sustainability of coffee production through the recommendation of climate change adaptation strategies that will increase the farmers’ resilience to the impacts of climate change.