KATHMANDU, Jan 24: Nepal needs to diversify the genetic landscape in coffee production to mitigate the risk of having a single uniform genetic background, a research has suggested.
The research conducted by the Government of Nepal with technical support from the International Trade Centre (ITC) under the European Union-funded EU-Nepal Trade and Investment Programme (TIP), has concluded that Nepal is a Bourbon Coffee country. The DNA mapping report that was unveiled on Monday, was targeted to support the long-term objectives of improving the Nepal coffee industry’s productivity and climate change adaptability by identifying the most appropriate coffee varieties in Nepal.
The research report is based on a study of 104 samples of 26 coffee varieties from 13 nurseries across the country. The report concluded that environment, farming/ post-harvest practices and the genetics/varieties of coffee plants determine the agronomic performance of coffee trees, influence the climate change adaptability, efficiency of fertilizer intake to control Carbon Footprint, and the final cup quality.
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The research also found that 70 percent of the total samples have a clear Bourbon genetic fingerprint while 98 percent of the samples collected from the private nurseries bearing local names have a clear Bourbon genetic fingerprint.
“Though genetic uniformity can be an advantage as Bourbon varieties are climate resilient and adapted to smallholders, it is also a major risk as Bourbon varieties are susceptible to leaf rust,” states the report. “Having a vast majority of Bourbon may lead to a major rust outbreak as happened in Latin America during the last decade,” the report further says.
The study also found that the genetic landscape in private and government nurseries is different. According to the report, 98 percent of samples from private nurseries are with Bourbon genetic fingerprints while government nurseries contain diverse varieties including introgressed varieties and Ethiopian-related coffee plantlets.
Presenting the report, Senior Scientist of the NARC, Jeet Narayan Chaudhary said, the DNA Sequencing was conducted to identify the available coffee varieties of Nepal.
The research was conducted in collaboration with the National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB), the Coffee Research Programme (CRP) of the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC).
