As climate pressures intensify across coffee-growing regions, the coffee sector faces a critical question: how can we build supply chains that remain productive, profitable, and resilient?
As climate pressures intensify across coffee-growing regions, the coffee sector faces a critical question: how can we build supply chains that remain productive, profitable, and resilient?
Across Latin America, producers, cooperatives, roasters, and buyers are navigating increasingly erratic weather, rising production costs, growing pressure on water resources, and evolving sustainability expectations.
Through Blue Harvest Regenerative, CRS and Dr Pepper Keurig are working with coffee-producing communities in Honduras and Nicaragua to generate evidence on how regenerative agriculture can strengthen farm productivity, improve water stewardship, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while supporting long-term resilience across the coffee value chain.
Resilience Starts in Coffee Landscapes
In Honduras, Luis Marin began implementing practices such as living ground cover, agroforestry, and improved nutrient management to address increasingly erratic rainfall and rising production costs.
Experiences like this are being replicated across thousands of participating farms. Producers are adopting regenerative practices that improve soil health, increase water infiltration, reduce erosion, and make better use of farm resources, helping farms adapt to changing climate conditions.
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Unlocking Value Through Regenerative Agriculture
One of the most important questions facing the coffee sector is whether regenerative agriculture can deliver measurable economic value. The evidence emerging from Blue Harvest suggests it can. Participating farms reported an average yield increase of 49%, income gains ranging from 43% to 52%, and significant improvements in nitrogen use efficiency. These results suggest that healthier soils can support stronger farm economics while reducing reliance on costly external inputs, creating value for producers, cooperatives and supply chain partners alike.
Water Security Is Coffee Security
Water is one of the most critical resources underpinning the future of coffee. Coffee processing water use has been reduced by 76%, saving more than 40 million liters of water annually. At the same time, partnerships among cooperatives, communities, and local organizations have helped improve water access for 50,000 people. These results show that investments in water stewardship can generate benefits that extend beyond the farm, supporting both community well-being and long-term supply chain resilience.
A Climate Solution Rooted in Working Landscapes
Using the Cool Farm Tool, Blue Harvest Regenerative has documented greenhouse gas emission reductions of more than 50% through improved nutrient management, agroforestry systems, enhanced soil cover, and better management of coffee processing byproducts and wastewater. At the same time, coffee cooperatives and community groups are helping protect and conserve more than 260,000 acres of critical landscapes. Together, these results show that regenerative approaches can deliver climate benefits while supporting productive coffee landscapes.
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A Shared Opportunity for the Coffee Sector
The experiences emerging from Honduras and Nicaragua suggest that productivity, environmental stewardship, and economic opportunity are not competing goals, but are essential parts of a resilient whole. When producers, cooperatives, companies, and communities work together, these outcomes reinforce one another. As the coffee sector looks ahead, regenerative agriculture offers a pathway toward stronger farms, healthier watersheds, lower emissions, and more resilient supply chains. Across Central America, producers are showing that resilience is not only a response to climate challenges—it is an opportunity to build a stronger future for coffee.
