"From crop to cup"

21 May 2024, Rome-Nairobi – 21st May is International Tea Day and there’s a lot to celebrate. Tea in all its types and forms is, aside from water, the world’s most popular beverage. Globally tea is an important cash crop, playing a significant role in rural development, poverty reduction and food security in developing countries.

But tea is at risk due to climate change.   Increasing temperatures and extreme weather events are posing a significant threat to the resilience of tea production systems. Tea plants thrive on slopes with a specific soil type, in a hot and moist climate but the changing climate is altering these optimum conditions and threatening the livelihoods of millions of smallholder producers, over 650 000 of whom live in Kenya’s tea growing regions, in the East and West of the Rift Valley.  It is predicted that an increase in temperature may drastically reduce tea yields as gradually areas become unsuitable for tea production.

Through the project “Global Low Carbon Tea - Triangular Cooperation in Tea Value Chain in the Republic of Kenya”, FAO is working to strengthen Kenya’s tea value chain; to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during the plants development and growth and to support rural livelihoods. The project is being implemented with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MARA) and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Tea plants have the capacity to absorb carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere through biomass and soil which are enhanced through low carbon practices. Agroforestry, a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture is one of many  agricultural practices used to grow ‘low carbon’ tea (LCT).  It helps to increase soil fertility, enhancing its physical, biological, and chemical properties, which reduces the need to apply synthetic fertilizers. The trees also provide shade and protect the tea bushes from climate extremes.

The Tea Research Institute (TRI) in the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization is also part of the project and has a mandate to promote good agricultural practices for tea through research.

“The trials conducted so far by the Institute have unveiled climate-smart technologies and management practices including tea cultivars that are resilient to climate change, different methods of tea cultivation such as the use of shade trees, mulching using tea pruning, and the integration of organic fertilizers in fertilizer applications in tea fields”.

Explained Mr Samson Kamunya, Director of TRI.

Kenya aims to reduce its GHG emissions by 32% by 2030. By introducing both climate change mitigation and adaptation elements, the project is contributing to meeting Kenya’s national climate commitments.

“Agroforestry and reforestation as well as biodiversity protection constitutes a standard way of enhancing tea garden ecology. The practice encourages carbon storage in the soil and prevents climatic disaster damage, and the tea quality and taste is also greatly improved”.

Said Professor Yinlong Xu from the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (IEDA) of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). Professor Xu is also supporting the implementation of the project in Kenya as well as the development of carbon neutral tea in China.

Further reading

• International Tea Day 2024 website
• Assessing the carbon footprint of tea production: case studies and challenge
• Carbon neutral tea production in China – Three pilot case studies