CABI and coffeeWe are experts in coffee. We work with farmers, traders, researchers and policy makers. To aid production and help make the whole chain, from farmers to consumers, more efficient.

Over 70% of the world’s supply of coffee is provided by smallholder farmers, who rely on it for their living. However, there are many factors which can mean many go hungry; whether it is because of prices for their coffee, pests and diseases, poor production techniques or inefficient trade and quarantine to name but a few. Nobody quite knows how many farmers produce coffee throughout the world, although the figure of 25 million is sometimes given with more than 100 million directly or indirectly dependent on it.

Some producer countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi, rely on coffee for a large part of their foreign exchange earnings.

Coffee is the most valuable tropical agriculture crop. Currently, the value per year is likely to exceed $20 billion.

We calculate that for one disease alone, coffee wilt disease, which is currently confined to four countries, has cost farmers over $1billion in lost earnings over the past 20 years.

The impacts of our work to date include:

• building of expertise and capacity in coffee producing countries

• improving on-farm practices through enhanced farmer understanding of alternative, ecologically sound agronomic methods and better ways of using pesticides

• helping coffee producing regions to understand quarantine issues more fully and more able to respond to them

• increased coffee productivity, quality and returns to farmers, traders and ultimately national economies, leading to improved livelihoods

CABI has worked on coffee for over 90 years, making a real difference to smallholder growers around the world

KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFE

With thanks to our partners and donors who include:

Anecafé

Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

Caisses de Stabilisation et de Péréquation (CAISTAB), Gabon

Cenicafé

Central Coffee Research Institute, Coffee Board of India

Centre de Coopération Internationall en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD)

Centre National de Recherche agronomique (CNRA), Cote D’Ivore

Chipinge Coffee Research Station, Department of Agriculture Research, Zimbabwe

Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC)

Coffee Research Centre (COREC), Uganda

Coffee Research Foundation, Kenya

Common Fund for Commodities (CFC)

Comité de Coordination pour les Filières Café et Cacao (CCFCC), Togo

European Union

Fédération Nationale des Exportateurs et Producteurs de Café/Cacao, Guinée

Indian Coffee Board

Indonesian Cocoa and Coffee Research Institute (ICCRI)

Institute for Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Cameroon

InterAfrican Coffee Organisation (IACO)

International Coffee Organisation (ICO)

Jimma Agriculture Research Centre (JARC), Ethiopia Institute of Agriculture Research (EIAR), Ethiopia

Kenya Coffee Board

Lunyangwa Agriculture Research Station, Department of Agriculture Research, Malawi

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development of Cameroon

Ministry of Agriculture Indonesia (MOAI)

National Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) of PNG

National Crops Resources Research Institute (NACRRI), Uganda

National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO), Uganda

Sciences Agronomique du Rwanda (ISAR), Rwanda

Office National de Café et Cacao (National Coffee and Cocoa Board), Cameroon

Office National du Café (ONC), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) PROMECAFE

Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Ministry of Agriculture, Rwanda University of New South Wales

Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI), Tanzania

University of Kinshasa, DRC

World Bank

Contact:

Julie Flood, Global Director Commodities, CABI, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9TY, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1491 829043 Email: j.flood@cabi.org

www.cabi.org

KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFEwww.cabi.org

Investigating for coffee berry borer, PNG Roasted coffee beans

Coffee green scale, PNG Drying coffee beans, Rwanda

Market, RwandaCoffee drying, EthiopiaCoffee leaf rust, India Coffee farming, AngolaInvestigating coffee leaf rust, Rwanda

case study: Coffee green scale in

Papua New Guinea

The foreign coffee green scale insect is estimated to cause 10% - 50% losses in

coffee yields, severely affecting the amount of coffee farmers have to sell. The

insect colonises the leaves and stems of the plant and feeds on its sap, which

in turn affects bean density and quality. The demand for high quality ‘niche’

coffee from Papua New Guinea (PNG) is growing and farmers need the tools to

manage this destructive pest in a sustainable and cost effective way.

To tackle the problem, scientists from CABI, the University of New South

Wales and PNG Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) are examining factors that

may be causing the spread and growth of scale populations and developing

management interventions. Working with local smallholders, researchers have

also collected information about existing farmer knowledge and controls, so that

this can be utilized and possibly expanded over wider coffee growing areas.

It is now clear that some highly invasive ant species are exacerbating the problem.

These ants interfere with local natural enemies which help control the scale

populations. It also appears scales are spread by coffee seedlings from nurseries.

case study: Coffee leaf rust in India and AfricaCoffee production, hugely important to smallholder farmers, is constrained by a number of pests and diseases. Coffee leaf rust is a major one. Caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, the disease causes leaves to develop yellow spots on the underside and drop prematurely, and reduces the coffee bean yield by around 40%. In severe cases, coffee leaf rust will kill the coffee tree entirely. Smallholders often cannot afford pesticides so we initiated a project to reduce the economic and environmental costs of disease control and reduce crop losses caused by the disease.CABI is implementing a project in India, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, assessing the impact of the disease on production, and how farmers responded. CABI and national scientists are developing and conserving healthy breeding stocks and making recommended varieties available to farmers.Coffee varieties are being exchanged between the countries involved and are being evaluated for, growth, vigour, yield and the quality of the end product – a cup of coffee. Farmers are taking an active role in running field trials and are attending farmer field schools to test using environmentally benign fungicides and other agents to help control the disease. We are spreading the information we gather amongst stakeholders within each country, and at an international level.

case study: Coffee quality

For developing countries, coffee is a vitally important commodity, and millions

of rural poor depend on it for their livelihoods. Despite its importance however,

global prices are highly volatile. Better quality coffee can be sold at a significantly

higher price, providing a considerable opportunity to improve farmers’ incomes

and open more market opportunities.

Traditional methods of processing coffee cherries often produces poor quality

coffee which lacks flavour and aroma. But, over the years, we have done

many projects across Africa on increasing the quality of coffee produced by

smallholder farmers. We look at the whole growing and processing system

including: establishing effective farms with seedlings and tools; providing

farmers with the right knowledge and skills to grow and process coffee; and

rehabilitating processing factories; and finally marketing the resultant coffee.

We have also helped make the seedlings of improved varieties and loans for

fertilizers available, and have helped establish and provide assistance to those

associated with the coffee industry. Furthermore, we have worked to establish

secure markets for the high quality coffee.

case study: Coffee berry borerThe coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is the world’s most widespread

and damaging insect pest of coffee. It develops inside the maturing coffee

berry, making it difficult for farmers to control and causing the beans to weigh

less, drop prematurely and results in a reduction in quality for harvestable

berries. Production losses of at least US$500 million per year have been

estimated. Although the incidence of coffee berry borers can vary, the pest can

cause severe economic hardship in heavily affected areas. This ACIAR funded project applies CABI’s vast experience in coffee berry borer

management to address the problem in Indonesia and prevent it occurring

in Papua New Guinea. We’ll do this by encouraging better management, and

by putting in place prevention and incursion procedures where the pest is not

yet known to occur. Coffee berry borer management in Indonesia emphasizes

situation-specific surveillance and awareness, appropriate integrated pest

management research (such as cultural methods including crop sanitation and

pest trapping) as well as the application of biocontrol agents. We will also train

farmers in the latest technology by using a participatory approach. Indonesian

farmers’ practical knowledge of coffee berry borer and its management have

already significantly improved following on farm participatory trials and training.

In Papua New Guinea, we are emphasizing quarantine procedures where we

are building capacity, encouraging early detection and emergency responses.