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Extensive trials on, yield 30% more than other strains

Vishwanath Kulkarni

Recently in Balehonnur (Karnataka), July 16 After 21 years of extensive research, the Balehonnur-based Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI) expects to release a new coffee variety on December 15 this year.

The yet-to-be named hybrid, hi-yielding arabica variety is resistant to diseases such asleaf rust and relatively less resistant to the widely prevalent white stem borer.

Mr Jayarama, Director, CCRI, said trials of the new variety were being conducted with some 500 growers across the coffee growing regions. The new variety yields about 30 per cent more coffee per hectare at around 2,000 kgs as compared to the other varieties in plantations like Kaveri, Hemavati and 795 among others.

Further, Mr Jayarama said, the CCRI has taken up the coffee genome sequencing project in collaboration with four other research institutes. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT)-funded project is currently being executed in collaboration with The Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysore, The University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Madurai Kamaraj University, and The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, he said.

It is assumed that the coffee genome contains over 30,000 genes of which only about 100 genes were known, he said. CCRI, which is part of the International Coffee Genome Network, may take about another five years to sequence the genes of robusta variety, Mr Jayarama said.

The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, who toured the coffee growing regions of Karnataka last week, said a virtual research network was being set up between the public agencies and the private sector laboratories to carry out research related to coffee.

While the CCRI was already working with other major public research institutes, it is expected to tie-up with the Bangalore-based private sector laboratory, Metahelix, to work on genetically modified coffee variety that’s resistant to pest like white stem borer, Mr Ramesh said.

Further, the Coffee Board has tied up with IIT Kharagpur to develop implements that could help the growers improve productivity and overcome challenges like labour shortage, said Coffee Board chairman, Mr G.V. Krishna Rau.

The 100-year-old Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI) at Balehonnur would be renamed as Indian Institute of Coffee Research (IICR) and an attempt would be made to infuse fresh research talent, Mr Ramesh said

More Stories on : Coffee | Research & Development

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