The Hindu Business Line : Germplasm from Lisbon helps develop new arabica strain

Chennai, Nov. 7 Portgual is a country where coffee can hardly be grown but it has played a significant role in India coming out with a new arabica coffee variety after 21 years. Nothing to be surprised about.

The germplasm for yet-to-be named variety has been obtained from Coffee Rusts Research Centre in Lisbon, Portugal’s capital. However, scientists at the Coffee Board in Bangalore call it “Sarchimor”, which is derived from its parents Villasarchi and Catimor.

The germplasm was brought to India way back in 1981 under an Indo-Portugal exchange programme. With the new strain getting ready for release, that exchange programme, which had been kept in the cold, has been revived by the Department of Science and Technology recently.

The last arabica variety, Cauvery, released by the Coffee Board was in 1986. It was a high-yielding variety that gave 2.5-3 tonnes of beans per hectare. But its drawback has been that it succumbs to leaf rust and does not grow well in all elevations.

The new strain, likely to have a feminine name going by the Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh’s statement, is capable of growing in marginal areas and give a yield of 1.75 tonnes a hectare. But this variety will be more helpful to the planters as input costs in terms of pesticides used for controlling the rusts will be lower.

According to the Coffee Board Chairman, Mr G.V. Krishna Rau, its “one single attribute” is significantly higher proportion of bold beans. Besides, the crop has a higher capacity of foliage retention. This means, the stem of the crop will be covered by the thick foliage of the crop and as a result, there could be relief from the white stem borer which is currently wreaking havoc in coffee plantations.

“The new variety also has higher resistance to all known varieties of rust disease,” Mr Rau says, but cautions, “the new variety will not solve all problems.” Also, the Coffee Board would be giving clones of the new variety rather than the seeds.

This is because the board does not want cross pollination of this variety with any other, which could weaken the succeeding plants. “Planters may not be allowed to propagate this variety or will be asked to perform the operation under controlled atmosphere,” say officials.

Also, the plan to protect the variety is to irrigate plots in which the new varieties are planted in February so that the crop blossoms early and no cross pollination takes place.

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