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World coffee production is still based to a large extent on traditional cultivars. In C. arabica cultivars were developed long ago by line selection within the Typica and Bourbon varieties, or in offspring of crosses between these two types. Besides, cultivars like Caturra, Pacas, San Ramon, Sumatra and Maragogipe have their origin as single-gene mutants found in C.

arabica populations (Krug and Carvalho, 1951). The traditional cultivars are often renowned for their excellent cup quality, but most are very susceptible to the major coffee diseases, which makes them increasingly obsolete for economic (costs of chemical disease control) and ecological (chemical pollution) reasons in many coffee regions (Table 2.2).

However, as a result of considerable breeding efforts during the past 50 years, new arabica cultivars with higher yield potential and resistance to important diseases have now started to replace traditional varieties in several countries. These include Catimor and Sarchimor type of cultivars in Colombia, Brazil, Central American countries and India, Icatu in Brazil, as well as the F1 hybrid cultivars Ruiru II, generally referred as Ruiru 11 in Kenya, and Ababuna in Ethiopia. Some of the recently developed cultivars of arabica coffee are described in Table 2.3.

Efforts to obtain resistance to CLR, already started in India around 1920, have had a long history of initial successes followed by disappointments because of repeated appearance of new virulent races of the rust fungus.

However, some lines of the cultivar Catimor, which was developed from crosses between Caturra and Hibrido de Timor (a natural interspecific hybrid between C. arabica and C. canephora with arabica phenotype), have shown complete resistance to all physiological races of the CLR pathogen in most countries. These results were obtained by breeding plans normally applied to self-pollinating crops, including recombination crosses followed by backcrossing, inbreeding and pedigree selection (Carvalho, 1988;

Bettencourt and Rodrigues, 1988). The breeding programme in Kenya demonstrated the advantages of F1 hybrid cultivars also for arabica coffee, especially the simultaneous combination of compact plant type, high yield, good quality and resistance to coffee berry disease (CBD) and CLR in one cultivar (Van der Vossen and Walyaro, 1981). Subsequently, breeding

Table 2.2 Commercially important traditional arabica cultivars (disease susceptible)

Name Country Description

Typica Worldwide The original type of arabica coffee introduced from Yemen into Asia in the early sixteenth century and after 1720 into the Caribbean and Latin America

Bourbon Worldwide Introduced around 1715 from Yemen into Re´union Island (formerly Bourbon) and subsequently into Latin America and East Africa; more compact and upright growth, higher yielding and better bean and cup quality than Typica; red and yellow fruited Bourbon types

Tekesik C. America High-yielding selection from Red Bourbon made in El Salvador Kona Hawaii Selection from Typica with large beans, good quality, but low

yield

Mundo Novo Brazil Selection from a natural cross between Sumatra (Typica) and red Bourbon found in Sao~ Paulo in 1931; replacing much of Typica after 1960; vigorous growth and high yielding

Blue Mountain

Jamaica A Typica selection grown in the Blue Mountains and famous for its cup quality; susceptible to CLR, moderately resistant to CBD Kent India Selection from Typica in 1911; some resistance to CLR (race II);

good cup quality; still grown at high altitudes

K7 Kenya Selection from Kent in 1936; some resistance to CLR (race II) and CBD; vigorous growth and high yielding, but lower cup quality than SL28

SL28 Kenya Selection from Bourbon ‘Tanganyika Drought Resistant II’ in 1935; high yielding and some drought resistance; excellent bean and cup quality

SL34 Kenya Selected from ‘French Mission’ (Bourbon-type); good yield and excellent bean size and liquor quality; adapted to highest altitudes

KP423 Tanzania Selection from Kent similar in yield and quality to K7 in Kenya N39 Tanzania Selection from Bourbon-type coffee; excellent bean and cup

quality, but moderate yielder

Jimma Ethiopia Dry-processed forest and garden arabica coffees of many origins and very variable quality

Harar, Gimbi Ethiopia Distinct varieties grown in Hararge and Welega provinces resp.;

dry-processed coffees highly appreciated for their ‘mocha’

flavour Yirga Chefe,

Limu

Ethiopia Washed coffees of very good quality; names refer to place of origin (Sidamo and Kefa provinces resp.) rather than being distinct cultivars

Caturra Worldwide Mutant discovered in Bourbon field in Brazil in 1935; compact growth (short internodes); medium-sized beans and moderate cup quality

Catuai Brazil Selection from a cross (Caturra x Mundo Novo) made in 1949;

compact growth; in Brazil higher yielding and better quality than Caturra

Villa Sarchi Costa Rica Mutant with short internodes found in Bourbon coffee; syn.

Villa Lobos; similar to Caturra in plant stature and yield, but smaller beans

Pacas El Salvador Caturra-like mutant found in Red Bourbon coffee in 1909 CLR, coffee leaf rust.

Table 2.3 Commercially important modern arabica cultivars (cultivars with disease resistance)

Name Country Description

Catimor Worldwide Selections from crosses (Caturra/Catuai x Hibrido de Timor); compact growth like Caturra; resistant to CLR; Oeiras (Brazil), Cauvery (India), IHCAFE90 and CR95 (C. America) are Catimor-like cultivars Sarchimor Worldwide Selections from cross (Villa Sarchi x H. de Timor);

similar to Catimor in compact growth and resistance to CLR; Tupi, Obata and IAPAR59 (Brazil) are Sarchimor-like cultivars

Colombia Colombia Synthetic variety composed of a number of Catimor lines; large bean and good liquor quality; resistant to CLR; some lines with resistance to CBD

S795 India Selection from a natural interspecific hybrid (C.

arabica x C. liberica) backcrossed to C. arabica;

resistant to some CLR races; high yield and good liquor quality; most important arabica cultivar in India

Ruiru II (Ruiru 11) Kenya F1 hybrids (seed by hand-pollination) between selected Catimor lines and selected clones from multiple crosses (tall plants); resistant to CBD and CLR; slightly less compact than Catimor; early and high yielding; most F1 combinations have very good bean size and cup quality

Ababuna Ethiopia F1 hybrid (seed by hand-pollination) between selected lines of Ethiopian germplasm with normal (tall) plant habit; resistance to CBD

Icatu Brazil Selections developed by crossing (tetraploid) C.

canephora x C. arabica (Bourbon) followed by backcrossing to Mundo Novo; resistance to CLR; tall growth habit; susceptible to drought and cold; high yielding and good cup quality. IAC3282 is an early maturing Icatu with yellow berries

S2828 India Developed by interspecific crossing and backcrossing similar to Icatu; tall plants; resistance to all (?) races of CLR; high yielding and good cup quality 1. CLR, coffee leaf rust; CBD, coffee berry disease.

2. Important progenitors for disease resistance:

Hibrido de Timor: arabica-type variety cultivated in Timor; assumed to have developed from a natural cross between C. arabica and C. canephora; CIFC (Portugal) clones 832/1, 832/2 and 1343 have resistance to all or most races of CLR; CIFC clone 1343 also carries a gene for resistance to CBD. According to Bertrand et al. (In Press) it should be possible to find lines with resistance genes and good beverage quality. Selection can avoid accompanying the

introgression of resistance genes with a drop in beverage quality (Bertrand et al., 2004).

Rume Sudan: semi-wild arabica variety collected in 1942 from the Boma Plateau in southeastern Sudan; some individual plants have very high resistance to CBD.

The plant 33 strategies aiming at F1 hybrid cultivars in arabica coffee have been adopted elsewhere, e.g. in Ethiopia (Bellachew, 1997) and in Central American countries (Bertrand et al., 1997).

Selection for bean size and cup quality has received much attention in arabica coffee breeding programmes in Kenya and Colombia in particular, because the quality of new disease-resistant cultivars should be at least equal to that of the traditional cultivars in order to uphold the country’s high reputation and special position in the world coffee market. This was obviously achieved in Kenya with the CBD- and CLR-resistant hybrid cultivar Ruiru 11 (Njoroge et al., 1990) and in Colombia with the CLR-resistant cultivar Colombia (Moreno et al., 1995), as judged by international coffee-tasting panels. Rigorous standardization of pre- and post-harvest practices, bean grading and cup tasting applied in these two breeding programmes contributed to increased selection progress and helped to overcome the initially negative effects on quality due to intro-gression of disease resistances from exotic germoplasm (cupping char-acteristics are, however, different from those of the parent material and still considered by trade less suitable for espresso-type blends). Bean size improvement is particularly noticeable in the Pacamara variety (cross between Pacas Maragogype), developed in El Salvador, with screen size bean values of 19 andmire.

2.2.2.2 Robusta

In case of the cross-pollinating C. canephora, most cultivars are also propagated by seed, often from polyclonal seed gardens. Commercially important robusta cultivars include the BP and SA series in Indonesia, S274 and BR series in India, the IF series in the Ivory Coast and the cultivar Apoata in Brazil (Table 2.4). Some breeding programmes in robusta coffee (e.g. in the Ivory Coast) have recently adopted methods of reciprocal recurrent selection with distinct sub-populations to increase chances of producing genotypes superior in yield, quality and other important traits (Leroy et al., 1997b).

2.2.2.3 Interspecific hybrids

Interspecific hybridization has played a significant role in coffee, such as crosses between arabica and robusta coffee with the objective of introgressing disease resistance into arabica, e.g. the cultivars Icatu in Brazil (Carvalho, 1988) and S2828 in India (Srinivasan et al., 2000), or improved liquor quality into robusta coffee, such as the variety Arabusta in the Ivory Coast (Capot, 1972). Other examples of interspecific hybridization leading to successful robusta cultivars are Congusta in Indonesia and the CxR variety in India.

2.3 AGRONOMY

M.R. So¨ndahl, F. Anzueto, C.R. Piccin and H.A.M. van der Vossen