Plantations with native trees produce more coffee which is also of better quality
Forest trees are good, not just for the environment but for your coffee too: having more forest trees in coffee plantations maintains tree diversity and also increases coffee production and quality, shows a study. This could be vital information as native trees are being replaced with exotics in coffee-growing landscapes to increase coffee production.
India, the world’s sixth largest coffee-producer, grows ‘shade’ coffee, under the canopies of naturally occurring native trees such as jackfruit, Black dammar (dhup) and Magnolia (champa) which are legally-protected. However, some planters now replace dead native trees with exotics like Silver oaks which are not protected and can be felled for timber. Silver oaks also serve well as pepper stands, and cultivating pepper on them supplements planters’ incomes. This ‘intensification’ – reducing and replacing native shade tree cover – contributes to forest loss in the tropics, where coffee is cultivated.
Scientists at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and the College of Forestry (Kodagu) examined whether this intensification affects native tree biodiversity and coffee productivity in Karnataka’s Kodagu district, which produces more than one-third of India’s coffee. They studied tree species diversity in 25 coffee plantations varying in native shade tree cover, with some having only non-native Silver oaks as canopies.
The benefits
Their results, published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, show that 95 native tree species offer shade for coffee in Kodagu; and intensification decreases this tree diversity. Some plantations, which still retained native trees, even had red-listed tree species (designated as threatened by the IUCN), and some of them in high numbers. The team found that such plantations produced more coffee, which was also of better quality . Silver oak-dominated plantations showed more single-seeded fruits and attacks by the Coffee berry borer, a major pest.
“This is likely due to reduced predators such as ants, birds, or parasitoids, in Silver oak-dominated plantations,” says lead author Maike Nesper (ETH Zurich). Protecting native trees could be crucial, she adds.
“Some regions are re-diversifying tree canopy cover in coffee agroforests, as consumers are increasingly interested in biodiversity conservation and ready to pay premium prices…but to gain the same level of native diversity by reforestation is nearly impossible, and it is crucial to diversity in the first place.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Environment / by Aathira Perinchery / September 30th, 2017
