zlacker

    > Most abandoned coffee farming and converted their farms into prime real estate.

So they made more money by selling their farm land, instead of being a farmer? That sounds like a good trade to me. This is pretty normal process in all highly developed countries.

Related: What do you think Silicon Valley and Los Angeles Valley looked like 100 years ago? Lots of fruit farms. Today? Housing and office buildings -- all considered prime real estate. Once farming became less valuable than the land, most farmers sold.

    > Nairobi’s “heat.”

Can you explain why you put "heat" in quotes? Is this intended to be sarcastic?

>>throwa+(OP)
> So they made more money by selling their farm land, instead of being a farmer? That sounds like a good trade to me

It's a great trade for an individual who wants to get rich. It's a potential disaster for a country whose 3rd biggest export is the thing nobody wants to do now.

>>throwa+(OP)
>That sounds like a good trade to me.

Perhaps it's only good because their income from coffee was low due to inability to bypass parasitic intermediaries.

>>throwa+(OP)
Probably sarcastic as the temperature of Nairobi is quite moderate. A quick web serach states that the average summer temperature is

Average High: ~28°C (82°F) Average Low: ~14°C (57°F)

>>throwa+(OP)
> So they made more money by selling their farm land, instead of being a farmer? That sounds like a good trade to me. This is pretty normal process in all highly developed countries.

The reasons and conditions are totally different in economies like those in Africa that are setup for wealth extraction vs. America where they are setup for wealth generation. The book ‘why nations fail’ does a great job of explaining this.

>>throwa+(OP)
The temperature in Nairobi ranges from 15°C to 28°C, and it very rarely exceeds 30°C. Theres other parts of Kenya where the temp is 35c+. In the areas where the coffee farms once thrived—now converted into prime real estate—the temperature ranges from 10°C to 25°C. These areas were originally tropical forests before being cleared for coffee farming and later developed into housing estates. There is still significant tree cover, which helps regulate the temperature, making these areas particularly attractive to foreign nationals.