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1111111111 Lopez Diaz says the more recently planted bourbons fared better. He attributes that in part to a pruning technique the farms began employing a few years ago called "hedging," in which a shrub hedger is employed to shave trees down to what he calls a "high stump" after harvest, essentially providing a clean slate to allow fresh growth. "We noticed that the new leaves on the trees that we had been hedging for the last three years were not affected at all," he says. However, Lopez Diaz says the method won't work for every farmer because it takes the trees out of commission. "Wherever you do the hedging, that tree won't have harvest next year," he says. "But the only way to continue in this business is to renew." Farmers—particularly those using traditional plant varieties like Lopez Diaz—who have fared best during the roya outbreak are those with meticulously maintained plants or with the ability to renew their trees, but that isn't an option for a lot of farmers, and many have already lost significant portions of their farms to rust. The recommendations that came out of the World Coffee Research summit are designed in part to realistically assist farmers in those dire situations, says Schilling: "At the end of the day you need to be able to say, 'If you are a smallholder farmer with less than five hectares, not located at high altitude and you're growing this [disease-susceptible] variety, there's a high probability that you will go bankrupt in the next two or three years.'" Schilling says this type of "risk analysis" is needed to help farmers make informed decisions concerning action to plant new coffee trees or seek alternative farming schemes. In the case of planting new coffee trees, summit scientists and others are recommending rust-resistant varieties. This rust-fighting tactic has already worked for one Latin American power producer: In April, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia announced that four of its coffee-growing regions are rust free, and the disease-resistant variety Castillo— created by Colombian research institute Cenicafe—is largely to thank for it. Though many in the industry have been critical of disease-resistant varieties because of possible cup-quality issues, Schilling says technical advances and the reality of today's roya threat are shifting attitudes. "You could see at the summit that a lot of coffee companies were no longer bad mouthing disease-resistant varieties," he says. "Today we have the tools and wherewithal to move forward on both the disease-resistance and quality fronts." But for Lopez Diaz, disease-resistant varieties are not a viable option. "That's still a bad word for me personally," he says. "I think it's something that can be solved by a different method." The farmer does recognize, however, that investment needs to be made to help farmers with ailing crops, and he acknowledges that the C market has not helped the situation: Though coffee prices have seen a slow climb in recent weeks, they had previously been declining for several months, and roya does not appear to have made an impact on the market price. "If you depend on the C market, you pretty much are out of business," Lopez Diaz says. "Specialty coffee roasters need to be aware that production will be under the C market, so differentials need to be coming." continued on page 20 Fresh Cup Magazine • freshcup.com 19