Plantation Crops

Improvement of robusta coffee ( Coffea canephora)

• Robusta selections from CCRI Balehonnur are

  1) Selection –1 R ( S-270 and S-274)
  2) Selection –2 R ( BR series 9,10 and 11)
  3) Selection – 3 R ( C X R coffee)

• Unlike arabica coffee robusta coffee has long productive life of 70 to 80 years and hence, farmers’ donot replace the old varieties frequently.

1) Selection – 1R (S-270 and S-274)
It is a seeding progenies of two individual mother palm identified in robusta gene pool in India. It has 35 to 50 fruits per cluster.

Yield
10 q per ha. Under rainfed condition/ S- 274 is preferred to S-270 on account of its bolder beans and wide adoptability. Among the robusta selections S-274 is most popular and is promising well in planters’ field of all robusta tracts in India.

2) Selection 2 R ( BR series 9,10 and 11)
Based on individual performance of clones BR (Balehonnur Robusta) 9, 10 and 11 raised from S-274 were found to be promising and seed mixture of these clones was issued as Selection – 2 R. .
The population resembles S-274 in growth habit, yield potential and bean/cup characteristics.
Note: It is important to note that only seed mixture of these three clones BR –9, BR-10 and BR-11 should be used for planting. Individual clones should not be planted separately which may result in no fruit set due to incompatibility problems.

3) Selection – 3 R, ( C X R )
It is a inter specific hybrid between Coffea congensis X C. canephora (Robust coffee i.e,. Selelction- 274) = F1 (CXR)
F1 is back crossed with both the parents ( Robusta and congensis) Coffea congensis is a species closely related to both arabica and robusta with compact bush, drooping branches and better bean quality than robusta. .
Yield : 12 q/ha

Speciality
1) Can be planted at a closer spacing of 8 ‘ x 8’ than S-274 (i.e., 10 ‘ x10’)