Coffee plants belonging to growers on the edges of the Peruvian Amazon basin have been infected with a fungus said to have originated in Kenya more than a century ago.
For many smallholders, advice from African growers on how to cope would be as welcome as water in the desert. But, as many do not have internet access, it can be just as hard to come by.
That is what WeFarm, a London-based start-up, is aiming to achieve for the more than 43,000 smallholders signed up to its services, who use simple mobile phone text messages to share advice and information. For Arianna Valentini, WeFarm’s Peru-based Latin America co-ordinator, the service is “creating a social network of farmers”.