Coffee

If you are a coffee and tea farmer, here are some technologies that might interest you.

The Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) has developed

• 64 varieties of coffee Arabica in Germplasm for genetic improvement;
• a socioeconomically acceptable method of rehabilitating old coffee plantations with overgrown trees through coppicing at 30cm above ground level to rejuvenate old plants;
• management techniques of plant geometry by de-capping to a height of 1.5m to facilitate harvesting;
• the use of half node stem cutting for propagating robusta coffee;
• open rooted method of propagating and transporting stem cuttings of robusta coffee;
• a method of termite control on coffee by spraying the waste water from cassava processed for fufu’ production;
• and organic manure made from chromolaenaodoratum (siam weed), cow dung, grasses and maize stovers as effective inorganic fertilisers.

For tea CRIN developed

• · Germplasm of 24 highland clonal tea genotypes introduced from Kenya
• · Germplasm of high yielding lowland tea varieties  from China
• · A new rapid method for determining the field pluck (harvest) quality for tea
• · DNA molecular characterisation of 20 clones, which could assist in parental selection for subsequent hybridisation.
• · Recommendation on appropriate fertiliser application on test.