Coffee cultivation in non-traditional areas

In Panama, development coffee cultivation in non-traditional areas as an alternative for recovery agricultural sector and face the effects of climate change.

With initiative “Development of resistant technologies for coffee production in non-traditional areas of Panama” cultivation robusta and arabica coffee (MIDA 96), which not only caught the interest of manufacturers in uses mentioned above, but it is also an alternative to overcome high input costs, product price fluctuations in the market, labor shortages, among others.

In other countries, such as Brazil and India, they decided to make maps Properties soil for practice a precision agricultureHowever, there is no such species in Panama for coffee cultivation studies.

José Villarreal, soil laboratory manager Institute for Agricultural Innovation of Panama (IDIAP) and principal investigator of the project, he explained that the institution creates soil fertility maps, but specifically which areas are suitable for cultivation coffee studies have not been conducted.

Most studies on local coffee production have focused on up therealthough there is currently interest from manufacturers for growing coffee in non-traditional areas such as Capira, Olá, La Pintada, Penonomé, Bayano, Costa Abajo in Colón and Bajo de Güera.

Project from Foundation for Conservation, sustainable development, health and environment (Codesa) and IDIAP got good in those areas returns density monitoring, pruning, pest monitoringrecommended by the institution for varieties known

In this sense, seven provinces and non-traditional production regions will benefit, as well as actors who are part of the coffee chain.

Marcos Riquelme Jaén, director of Codesa and project researcher, emphasizes the urgent need to characterize state of nutrition soils in each region where this crop thrives in order to regionalize fertilizer formulations in such a way that producers can improve the quality of their production and get a better price for it.

This database created with the characteristics of the soil where coffee thrives will allow the development of an application with recommendations from fertilization to regionalize taking into account the characteristics of the soil and climate prevailing in each area.

The data obtained will also serve to create a national background for the inclusion of new areas production with similar characteristics in other provinces.