KNOW ABOUT SOME POPULAR SEMI-DWARF VARIETIES OF ARABICA - SCOPE TO TRANSLATE POTENTIAL INTO PERFORMANCE

摘要

Coffee plant belongs to the genus Coffea of the family Rubiaceae. The genus Coffea comprises of about 100 species of which Coffea arabica popularly known as arabica coffee and Coffea canephora referred as Robusta coffee are commercially cultivated around the world depending on their agro-climatic suitability. Another species, C. liberica, the Tree coffee' is grown to a small extent. Under natural conditions both arabica and robusta coffee plants grow like a small tree but attains bushy appearance whens plant growth is regulated through training. Further, as deviation to the original plant phenotype, several variants with respect to plant size, leaf colour, fruit shape and colour were also identified in widely cultivated homogenous varieties of Arabica coffee (Charrier and Eskes, 2004). Based on genetic analysis it was established that most of these variants were due to the single gene mutation. Among these variants, the mutants with respect to plant size i.e. compact/dwarf phenotype due to short/closer internodes such as Caturra from Brazil, Villa Sarchi, Villa Lobos and San Ramon from Costa Rica are the best exploited ones in arabica coffee breeding.