At Los Cedros Farm in Colombia’s coffee belt, Blue Bird Coffee uses a digital twin of its family coffee farm to confront a problem threatening Arabica coffee worldwide: Climate change is driving heat, drought, and the spread of the coffee berry borer. With World Coffee Research projecting that half of today’s Arabica-growing land may become unsuitable by 2050, guesswork-based farming is no longer sustainable.
The solution has three pillars. First, sun-hours and microclimate simulation help the farm design optimized agroforestry shade layouts that account for species, density, altitude, and seasonality before a single tree is planted. Second, the team develops geolocated field tracking for pests, Brix levels, blossom seasons, and reforestation progress. Third, it develops a carbon calculator to quantify potential credits from agroforestry and biochar.
Shade coverage rises from 30% to 42%, coffee berry borer infestation drops by 68%, and production reaches five times the previous year’s level. Although the initiative began on a small farm in the Colombian mountains, the model is scalable and has the potential to reshape how coffee producers and agricultural organizations adapt to climate change—showing how Autodesk technology can support new approaches beyond the built environment.
