Advances in Coffee Rust Research

Abstract

World coffee production is worth about $15 billion annually, providing important export revenues and labor opportunities for tropical countries (23). Coffee rust, induced by Hemileia vastatrix Berkeley and Broome, is a major disease of Coffea arabica, which constitutes about 75% of total coffee production. It has been estimated that crop losses in Brazil would be about 30% if no control measures were taken (93). On this basis, world crop losses from the disease may be roughly calculated at $1-2 billion annually (23,57). Coffee rust is therefore one of the seven most important diseases and pests of tropical crops (68). Marshall Ward's pioneering experiments with coffee rust, which were instrumental in proving that fungi are the causal agents of plant diseases, established it as a classical disease (139, 140). It is considered to have originated on wild coffee in Ethiopia (140), but was first reported in cultivated coffee in Sri Lanka in 1869 (12). Since then it has spread to most coffee growing countries (57). The western hemisphere was free from coffee rust until 1970 when it was reported in Brazil. Its further spread within a decade to other Latin American countries alerted governmental organizations and re­ search institutions to improve their research capabilities. For many of these countries this marked a new era of scientific advancement. The application of