Let us continue the journey

Hi Guys!

Hope you all had a good new years eve. I thought I'd wait for a couple of days, to be sure that no one will read this with a hangover. Because that would be a little bit painfull.

We are going to continue our journey about the coffee plant. Last time we talked about the plant anatomy, physiology and plant growth. Today we are going to talk about the improving of the plants and the environment having influence on the production.

Reproduction in plants 

So, a coffee plant produces coffee beans, these will be harvested. And then the cycle starts all over again. But how? A coffee plant is self-pollinating. This means that a coffee plant can reproduce itself. There are no bee's or other plants needed. Self-pollination ocurs when pollen is transferred to the stigma of the same flower.

And if you ever forget how a coffee bean grows, just look at the arm of this women that sells coffee somewhere in California.. 

Plant Breeding

Everything I told before in this blog, are more facts and cannot be discussed really. But plant breeding, is a way different story. I will show you my perspective about this through my blog, and I know that there are people that have different opinions, and these opinions are respected too.

So, plant breeding.. Humans have practiced aspects of plant breeding since they first domesticated crops by selection of desirable plant types from among wild populations. For example corn, our modern corn has a small similarity of a wild one, due to thousands of years of selecting.
Nowadays, farmers use plant breeding way more specific by using techniques that are based on an understanding of genetics.

But then how is this used within the coffee industry? Think about caffeine-free coffee beans. There are people that due to medical reasons, but there are also people that love the taste of coffee but can't handle the caffeine. Poor people.. Could you imagine? Ok, but focus. Right now they use a process that extracts the caffeine out of the coffee beans by using dichloromethane or ethyl acetate. But by using this method most of the time the flavor of the coffee get's destroyed. Some people think that this method is potentially harmful, and it is also very expensive.

Scientist are experimenting for years to try and produce coffee beans that are free of caffeine. They tried to use the method hybridisation, they crossed two breeding varieties. One was a coffee plant that was free of caffeine, but tasted terribly (ofcourse). The other coffee plant was a coffee plant that did contain caffeine, but had a very strong and good flavor. By crossing these, they wanted to create a coffee plant that was caffeine free, and had a very good taste.

There are also genetic approaches carried out. They genetically modify the genes of a coffee plant. And this is were a lot of people start getting doubts if it is still the right thing to do. Because you start messing with natures genes. From my point of view I think that if it will be done in the right way and with the right initiatives, it should be possible.
Ok, the coffee beans. They inserted the desired genes into the coffee beans to get the caffeine-free coffee beans with the right taste.

In the picture above you can find all the ways a coffee bean can be changed.

Environment and Agroecosystems 

Ofcourse a lot of the production of the coffee plant also depends on the climate that is in the country of production. As the title of my blog allready shows, I am talking about Vietnam. This is because Vietnam is the biggest exporter of Robusta coffee. Vietnamese coffee production is highly concentraded in the northern part, almost 80%. If you look only at the province Dalak, they produce about 43% of the national coffee beans. The arabica coffee is  mainly produced in the northern areas and then mostly in Lam Dong, Daklak.

This picture shows  a typical coffee area in DakLak.

The coffee plantations are mostly small and medium sized from less than 1 to 50 hectares. Less than 5% of the coffee plantations are more than 500 ha, and these are state owned.
Vietnam has one Robusta crop per year, and this is from October till the end of September the next year.

The climate in Vietnam is optimal for growing coffee beans, that is probably why it is the second largest exporter of coffee beans in the world. Vietnam has a climate that can be divided into a tropical and a temperate zone. Vietnam has strong monsoon influences, a considerable amount of sun, a high rate of rainfall, and a high humidity. The average temperature is between 22 and 27 celcius degrees year round. The cold season is from November to April and the hot season is from May to October. 

Irrigation 

Due to the high water resources high yields were obtained by Robusta coffee farmers. Vietnam has large stores of underground water in the Central Highlands that is provided by the annual monsoon rains. The rainfall would be enough to let the Robusta coffee plant grow, but because it is not provided in a even way, they still need irrigation to achieve the high yields. Studies in Dak Lak showed that for 1 hectare that has about 1100 trees needs about 1500 m3 to 3000 m3 annualy. 
Water for irrigation is obtained in 3 ways: ponds and reservoirs made by farmers, natural rivers, lakes and streams, and ground water. 

The irrigation method used in Vietnam is mostly basal irrigation. This is the cheapest and the most simple. By using this method, a very certain and uniform amount of water (200-600 liters/tree/round) is provided to the tree. Some farmers have choosen to use a sprinkler irrigation, due to the lack of labor. But this an more expensive method and it can sometimes lead to uneven or overlapped areas within the same field. 

The biggest environmental impact of Vietnam is the rainfall and water supply, which has the biggest influence on the production of this. 

Sustainability 

Nowadays, people are very busy with what type of food they buy, they want to know how it is produced and if it is healthy and good for the environment. Because coffee is one of the most drunken beverages in the world, it is important to look at the way coffee is produced and if there is a more sustainable way. 

Vietnam faces a few sustainability challenges. These challenges are pretty unique for just the coffee production in Vietnam. The first one is the water usage, farmers think that water is a resource that will fall out of the air forever, and can be used unlimmited. Also the soils fertility is diminishing due to the over use of fertilizers, and the depletion of groundwater supply. The farmers in Vietnam currently are facing an over-fertilization and over-irrigation to have the highest yield possible. It is understandable for the farmers to do this, because they are not living the most richest lives, and they also want to get food on the table. They can't live off of their coffee beans. But there has to change something. 
Right now their are projects in Vietnam that shows that intens training for farmers is required to change their way of practice. But this needs to be supported by governments and funds, because this is very expensive. 
Farmers will also stay over irrigating, if the use of water will be viewed as free. The sector will have to start with a base of understanding of groundwater availability and drawdown scenarios in the Central Highlands. 
Vietnam also needs to make a change in the quality of their fertilizers. Currently almost 80% of the feritlizers are made by state-owned enterprises and are cheaper than importet goods. But the quality is low and this means that they also need to use more on the lands to have the optimal results. 

So, I think that I have talked enough for today.. You guys will hear from me soon again. 

Cheers! 

Suzanne