In the lush, volcanic Komothai Highlands of central Kenya, farmers like Simon Macharia produce coffee on small plantations scattered across the hills.
Together with other farmers, Mr. Macharia takes bags of his bright red coffee cherries to a local processing plant, where they are weighed and treated.
A machine removes the red husks, and the pale beans inside are washed and run along concrete channels, ending up on lines of drying platforms that stretch across the valley.
Here, the workers categorize the beans into classes, mostly intended for coffee shops in Europe.
“Here we call coffee black gold,” Mr Macharia, whose farm covers 2.5 hectares (six acres), told the BBC.
He grows Kenya AA coffee beans, which are appreciated worldwide for their high quality, full body, deep aromas and fruity taste.
The crop has been a part of these lush highlands since the late 1890s, when it was introduced by British colonial settlers.
Now the area is known for its unique, top-rated coffee.
Growing berries is labor-intensive – picking, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilizing and transporting the product.
“Coffee requires your full concentration, especially when it starts to flower,” said Mr. Macharia.
“From that moment until the day you go to harvest — those six months, your full-time job is on the farm.”
A coffee tree is a big investment for cash-strapped farmers, as it can take four years for the fruit to ripen.
The price of a cup of coffee in a chic European cafe, usually $4 (£3.20), highlights the stark difference compared to the earnings of many Kenyan coffee workers, who earn a maximum of $2.30 a day.
Edita Mwangi, picking coffee cherries on a hill of red soil overlooking the processing plant, confirms this.
“They don’t know the poverty we suffer. You have to fight day and night just to survive,” she said.
With four children to depend on, Ms Mwangi works six days a week, earning about $1.40 a day.
She has to walk 5 km (three miles) to reach the farm where she works.
Farmers feel the trade system between Kenya and Europe – the world’s largest coffee market – has been stacked against them for years.
But now a new threat threatens farmers’ ability to make a living – climate change.
Coffee trees are extremely sensitive to small differences in temperature and weather conditions.
They also need specific climatic conditions for growth, such as humid temperatures and abundant rainfall.
“Climate change is a big challenge for our coffee farmers,” says John Murigi, president of the Komothai Coffee Society, which represents 8,000 coffee farmers like Mr. Macharia.
Low temperatures and erratic rainfall have a devastating effect on sensitive coffee plants, said Mr. Murigi.
As a result, “coffee production has decreased over the past few years.”
He added that climate change is intensifying the spread of disease in coffee plants.
Mr Murigi said there has been a significant increase in coffee leaf miner, an insect that feeds on coffee leaves and coffee berry disease, a destructive fungal infection that can destroy more than 80% of the crop.
To cope with increasing outbreaks, farmers are resorting to the use of herbicides and insecticides that can damage soil quality in the long term and also pose health risks.
Farmers use dangerous herbicides like Roundup, which contain glyphosate known to cause cancer – banned in some European countries – to ensure a good harvest.
Kenya’s Pest Control Products Board (PCPB), which is responsible for regulating the use of these products, did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
Up to 140 liters of water can be needed to produce one cup of coffee – including the water used to grow the plants.
But higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns mean dwindling water supplies for coffee farmers in Kiambu County.
Farmer Joseph Kimani told the BBC that “river levels have dropped a lot” due to erratic weather, such as periods of drought and heavy rains.
He said that due to lack of rain, farmers are forced to use more river water.
But this increased reliance on river water, fueled by a lack of rainfall, could further strain an already limited water supply.
Although Mr. While Murigi acknowledges the increase in water use by coffee farmers, he denies that this is the reason the river is drying up.
However, with 23 coffee societies in this region, it is clear that a significant amount of water is used in the coffee growing process in Kiambu County.
Komothija’s story is not unique. As global temperatures and droughts increase, good coffee will be difficult to grow in all parts of the world.
Coffee can only be grown in the “coffee belt” – tropical regions around the world in areas that are usually between 1000m and 2000m above sea level.
In recent years, climate change has led to shortages in global coffee supplies and increases in coffee prices due to drought and crop failures in several key coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam.
A survey by Fairtrade International, the organization behind the Fairtrade label, found that 93% of Kenyan coffee farmers are already feeling the effects of climate change.
The coffee industry in Kenya is a key source of employment, providing jobs for around 150,000 people.
To protect the industry, coffee farmers in areas such as Komothai are experimenting with climate adaptation techniques, such as planting trees to provide extra shade for the coffee plants.
Mr Murigi said that only by addressing the climate and economic challenges facing Kenyan coffee farmers can they have a sustainable future.
However, coffee farmers like Mr Macharia are pessimistic about the future of the industry.
“Right now, as things stand, I don’t think any parent wants their child growing coffee here,” he said.
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