Abstract
A study was conducted to evaluate four common coffee (Coffea arabica) varieties in Zimbabwe for drought tolerance and ability to recover. The plants were subjected to drought stress for 21 and 28 days with evaluation of recovery done 14 days after interruptive irrigation. Coffee varieties were not significantly different in initial fresh and dry biomass before stressing (P>0.05). CR95 had significantly accumulated more (P<0.05)dry root mass (0.8 g) than the rest of the varieties after 21 days of drought stress. SL28 and CR95 had an 8.3% increase in dry biomass while Cat128 did not gain any dry biomass after 21 days of drought stress. CR95 had significantly more (P<0.05) total dry biomass after 21 days and 28 days of drought stress while SL28 was consistently the least in both periods. Cat129 had the highest recovery gains in dry root, dry shoot, and total dry biomass after 21 days and 28 days of drought stress. Initial root biomass was negatively correlated with changes in total fresh and dry biomass of young coffee (r>0.60) after both 21 and 28 days of drought stress, indicating that root biomass may be the most important factor determining drought tolerance in coffee varieties.
Highlights
Coffee (Coffea arabica) is produced in many developing countries contributing significantly to poverty alleviation and national economic development
The majority of the coffee produced in Southern Africa is Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) which requires well-distributed rainfalls totaling over 1000 mm per year and temperatures between 24 and 26∘C [3,4,5]
The results indicated that initial root biomass was negatively correlated with changes in total fresh and dry biomass of young coffee (r > 0.60, Table 7) after both 21 and 28 days of soil moisture deficit stress, compared to initial shoot biomass which had weak correlation to both fresh and dry total biomass (r < 0.5)
Summary
Coffee (Coffea arabica) is produced in many developing countries contributing significantly to poverty alleviation and national economic development. In addition to the importance of coffee in many African national economies in terms of GDP and export earnings, it is directly linked to poverty alleviation as the majority of producers are smallholder farmers, and many rely only on coffee for socioeconomic development [1, 2]. The majority of the coffee produced in Southern Africa is Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) which requires well-distributed rainfalls totaling over 1000 mm per year and temperatures between 24 and 26∘C [3,4,5]. In traditional production areas rainfall patterns have become unpredictable and unreliable exposing the coffee plants to frequent and often severe droughts [8, 9]. Changing weather patterns due to climate change and variability are projected to reduce the suitability of areas under coffee production in many producing zones, increase the risk of coffee pests and diseases, and increase coffee production costs [7, 9,10,11,12,13]
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