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New coffee variety in the offing
2007-07-05 08:37:52
By Michael Haonga
Tanzania has come up with an outstanding variety of Arabica Coffee which is highly productive and meets the customers` taste in addition to being resistant to Coffee berry diseases.
The Chief Executive Director of the Moshi-based Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TACRI), Professor JAMES TERI gives details on the successful research carried on the variety.
Question: As an institute dealing with research in varieties of coffee, what is your latest contribution to getting a variety that has a high yield?
Answer: It is heartening that already TACRI has come up with a new variety of Arabic Coffee that in addition to being natural, and highly productive it is also resistant to coffee berry diseases.
This is a milestone achievement because the new product is an outcome of cross-breeding of natural coffee varieties by bringing coffee flowers of one plant and let self pollination take place in the breeding with another.
Through the process we have come up with the better variety of Arabica Coffee that is resistant to coffee berry diseases, highly productive and meets the taste of customers.
Q: Can we call the new breed genetically engineered coffee?
A: No, it is not. Neither Tanzania as a country nor TACRI has the capacity to produce genetically engineered coffee and we do not have any plans to do so.
Coffee is a self-pollinating crop and in the breeding process we just bring flowers from one plant and cross them with flowers of another crop. That is what we call crossing.
In doing so there is no such a thing like genetic engineering.
Q: How many varieties of Arabica Coffee do we have in the country so far?
A: From the old varieties of coffee referred to as N39 and KB423 we have come up with Kc 423, 123 and 4.
Q: Have you distributed the new breeds to farmers?
A: The seeds are already used in a number of areas in the country where Arabic type of coffee is grown with the exception Kagera where Robusta Coffee is grown.
We have estimated that after three or five years from now the farmers of Arabica coffee will start harvesting the new variety.
Q: Which are some of the areas where you have distributed the new coffee variety?
A: They include Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mbeya, Manyara, Mbozi, Mbinga,Iringa, Mufindi, Kilolo , Rungwe, Kigoma and Kasulu and we are optimistic that by the year 2010 the country will start producing some 120,000 metric tons per annum.
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