Rust-resistant coffee plants now a reality
International Coffee Organisation Okays Coffee Board’s Project.
By Raghu Krishnan, TNN |
BANGALORE: The most significant development at the recently-concluded meeting of the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) insofar as India is concerned, was the ICO executive board’s approval of a project to develop rust-resistant coffee plants with international funding and expertise, Coffee Board chairman GV Krishna Rau told ET here on Thursday on his return from London.
If 25% of the country’s premium Arabica coffee plants have been destroyed over the last few years by the white stem borer, it is because the five-year crash in the prices of coffee beans from 1999 has seen growers scaling down applications of the Bordeaux mixture combining lime, water and copper sulphate whose prices have soared over the last few years.
Consequently, Arabica plants have not developed the required degree of resistance to rust, with the result that the foliage is not thick enough to cover the stem of the plant and pre-empt the white stem borer (WSB) beetle from attacking.
After trying measures like subsidising the manual collection of the WSB at a pupa stage, Coffee Board has decided to develop and propagate rust-resistant varieties after finding that, even in infested zones, there were some plants of the Selection 5 and Selection 6 varieties which had foliage thick enough to keep the WSB out.
The ICO has approved a five-year project to identify rust-resistant plants, validate through marker-selection mechanisms in lab trials the properties which give them the resistance at the nursery level and than make them available for large-scale multiplication on the field.
The ICO will submit the project to the UN’s Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), based in Amsterdam. While CFC funding to the tune of $500,000 could begin in January, Mr Rau says the process of identifying rust-resistant coffee plants has already begun.
The validation is a rigorous scientific process where the London-based Institute of CABI Bioscience will provide the required technological assistance since it has been involved in CFC-funded projects.
“Our own scientists from the Central Coffee Research Institute are already at work and we expect to have within three years rust-resistant plants available for multiplication. The project will also look at developing bio-control agents to control diseases affecting coffee plants,” Mr Rau said.
If 25% of the country’s premium Arabica coffee plants have been destroyed over the last few years by the white stem borer, it is because the five-year crash in the prices of coffee beans from 1999 has seen growers scaling down applications of the Bordeaux mixture combining lime, water and copper sulphate whose prices have soared over the last few years.
Consequently, Arabica plants have not developed the required degree of resistance to rust, with the result that the foliage is not thick enough to cover the stem of the plant and pre-empt the white stem borer (WSB) beetle from attacking.
After trying measures like subsidising the manual collection of the WSB at a pupa stage, Coffee Board has decided to develop and propagate rust-resistant varieties after finding that, even in infested zones, there were some plants of the Selection 5 and Selection 6 varieties which had foliage thick enough to keep the WSB out.
The ICO has approved a five-year project to identify rust-resistant plants, validate through marker-selection mechanisms in lab trials the properties which give them the resistance at the nursery level and than make them available for large-scale multiplication on the field.
The ICO will submit the project to the UN’s Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), based in Amsterdam. While CFC funding to the tune of $500,000 could begin in January, Mr Rau says the process of identifying rust-resistant coffee plants has already begun.
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The validation is a rigorous scientific process where the London-based Institute of CABI Bioscience will provide the required technological assistance since it has been involved in CFC-funded projects.
“Our own scientists from the Central Coffee Research Institute are already at work and we expect to have within three years rust-resistant plants available for multiplication. The project will also look at developing bio-control agents to control diseases affecting coffee plants,” Mr Rau said.
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