Farmers from Gwynedd and Uganda have met to discuss the challenges they face.

Teleri Fielden, Farmers' Union of Wales Policy Officer, farms in the Snowdonia National Park. Jenipher Sambazi farms on a mountainside in Uganda.

Meeting on a Welsh mountain to talk about farming in mountainous areas, coffee farmer Jenipher, and face of the Welsh coffee brand ‘Jenipher’s Coffi’, said: “Climate change is a threat we live with on a daily basis.”

Teleri said: "Unpredictable incomes and changing weather, including new and more severe threats of pests are shared challenges for farmers from Wales to Uganda.”

Teleri and her husband Ned produce “biodiversity beef and lamb”. They sell directly to customers through a subscription box scheme.

Jenipher, vice-Chair of the Mt Elgon Agroforestry Communities Co-operative Enterprise (MEACCE) explained how 3,000 Fairtrade and Organic farmers in her cooperative use techniques including agroforestry to grow specialty coffee, hand in hand with nature. Tree planting brings a multitude of benefits, including anchoring the soil, which, with increasingly heavy rains, gets washed away with crops, homes and, also, human lives.

Ffion Storer Jones, Jenipher’s Coffi Co-Founder who coordinated the exchange said: “Farming faces enormous pressures globally, but by standing together and acting boldly to support farmers, we can build a fairer future. A fair price changes everything - I know this from growing up in a farming family - and that’s why Jenipher’s Coffi always carries the Fairtrade mark.”

Emma Jones, one facilitator of Wales' Climate Farm Demo Project - a pan European network of pilot demo farmers - who joined the exchange added: “It was very interesting, and devastating to learn from Jenipher how vulnerable farmers in Uganda are to climate change. It highlighted how important it is to support farmers in the face of an increasingly hostile climate to adapt sustainable practices to ensure food security for all”.