Coffee Wilt Disease Resistant (CWDr - KR Clones)

A well-managed one acre of CWDr KR varieties can give you an average of Shs13m per annum. This is because an acre can accommodate 750 trees considering commercial spacing of 10ft x 6ft. With an average yield of 3.5kgs per tree, a farmer will harvest 2,625kgs of graded coffee per annum. With an average price of Shs5000 per kilo (https://ugandacoffee.go.ug/ a farmer will earn Shs13m per year.

History of Robusta Coffee propagation in Uganda

Robusta Coffee grown in Uganda was derived from trees collected by agricultural workers in the early 1900s and consisted of two broad types: the “Erecta” type and the “Nganda” type. By mid-1930s, it was realized that more productive cultivars could be developed through deliberate selection within the existing tree population. Towards the end of the 1960s, some 25 individual trees (lines) had been selected on the basis of early maturity, high yield, large beans, good liquor and resistance to fungal diseases. These were further reduced to 8 clonal varieties that were later in 1995, reduced to 6. The six lines were distributed to nursery operators for propagation and released to farmers for planting.

Unfortunately, in 1993 the Coffee Wilt Disease (CWD) was identified to be attacking Robusta Coffee trees and the 6 clonal varieties were also found to succumb to the CWD. This destabilized the replacement of old traditional Coffee trees with clonal varieties and by 2002, about 56 percent of Robusta Coffee trees had been destroyed.

However, through rigorous breeding for resistance to CWD, the National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI) has developed 10 Coffee Wilt Disease-resistant (CWD-r) lines that were released by NARO’s Variety Release Committee. These 10 lines (KR1 – KR10) of Robusta Coffee are high yielding, fast maturing large beans and resistant to Coffee Wilt Disease. These lines are commonly referred to as KR-lines. CWD-r  KR lines are available for multiplication through both tissue culture and nodal cuttings (vegetative propagation), although the quantity available for planting by farmers is still low.

Clonal Robusta Coffee Propagation

Robusta Coffee is preferably propagated by vegetative means rather than through seed. This is because Robusta Coffee exhibits self-sterility. Robusta Coffee plants grown from seed will have a high degree of heterogeneity, which alters the desirable characteristics of the resultant Coffee plants. This variation may be manifested in the physical appearance of leaves, size of the fruits and beans, tree vigor, productivity, tolerance to drought, fruit formation, length of internodes, ripening time and uniformity. The method of vegetative propagation eliminates this progressive loss of the desired traits in the descendant Coffee trees.

Clonal Coffee propagation involves harvesting nodal cuttings from young shoots of recommended Coffee varieties and rooting the nodal cuttings under specialized conditions. This is the best method of propagating Coffee varieties derived from individual hybrid trees (controlled or open pollination), selected for exceptional agronomic and market traits that can be lost if the varieties are propagated by botanical seed.

CWDr KR Key Attributes

The major agronomic traits for CWDr KR Varieties are:

·        Fast maturing (Flowers within 1 year)

·         Higher yields as compared to earlier Robusta Coffee varieties

·        Resistant to Coffee Wilt Disease
 Tolerant to droughts

·        Large beans (big screen size)
 Good taste (cup liquor).

 

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