Improving Plants

The coffee beans are one of the most important beverages of the humandity in the world. Coffee is produced in about 80 tropical countries with an annual production of nearly seven million tons of green beans. Many livelihoods in developing countries are dependent on this crop. The increase of plant biotechnology has led to many advances in the field of coffee production, including breeding and cultivar development, resistance to pests and diseases, quality improvement (aroma, flavor etc), product diversication and post harvest strategies.  The major challenge in coffee breeding is the very narrow genetic base of the crop. To overcome this, breeders need to come up with ways of broadeing coffee's genetic variability by means of traditional and/or biotechnological methods. Studies told us that it takes about 30 years to develop a new cultivar of coffee. The knowledge of the improvements can be used to breed varieties that meet the demands of growers, processors and consumers, such as resistance to leaf rust disease. Caused by a fungus, leaf rust is the most economically important coffee disease in the world and has a considerable impact on the coffee industry and the economy of small producers in Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica.