A study case on coffee (Coffea arabica): Limu Coffe - IRD

eighteen improved cultivars/varieties are grown in south western and western Ethiopia (not
including local ones).
C.arabica tree lives up to fifty years, thirty years productive, and can be twelve meters
tall but is generally cut not to get taller than two to three meters in order to facilitate cultural
practices and harvest. Its genotype is characterized by 2n=44 chromosomes; it is self-fertile
and contains 0.8-1.7% of caffeine (Banttee, 1995). The Coffee Producing Development
Enterprise (2005) in charge of Ethiopian state farms provided them the following botanical
description in its coffee management manual:
The root system consist of a short stout tap-root, rarely extending beyond 45 cm, four
to eight axial roots originating as laterals from the tap-root and going down vertically to two
to three meters. Many laterals are found on the first foot of the soil and below them, the first
and lower laterals ramify evenly and dive deeply in the soil.
The shoot system has a prominent vertical stem with horizontal primary branches
arising from it in pairs opposite to each other. These latter give rise to secondary laterals,
which in turn produce tertiary and quaternary branches.
Leaves are dark green. Each pair of leaves is approximately at right angles to the pair
below. Just above the insertion of each leaf on the vertical stem, a series of four to six buds
may be found which give rise to a new vertical stem (sucker). Above these series, head of
series bud develops into a horizontal branch. The serial buds on these branches develop into
branches, inflorescence or remain undifferentiated.
Illustration 1: Coffee tree with unripe berries in
Suntu State Farm, Limu Kosa woreda, Bossolasco,
1 st July 2009)
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