Description of the collection

The genus Coffea is only African. The ecological context of Guyana is favorable to Coffea canephora (the robusta), which is the best represented species (2nd robusta collection in the world). The Guinean group, the Congolese group (with 4 subgroups) and inter-group hybrids are planted with a total of about 340 genotypes.
The survival and development of Arabusta, a Coffea canephora x C arabica hybrid, is good and allows the maintenance of a collection of 33 clones.
Arabica cultivar, spontaneous or hybrid, is also present in grafted form on Robusta or Arabusta, as it is not well adapted to the ecological context like various other Coffea.
The collection supports research and/or development projects.

Objectives

• To preserve the genetic heritage in the long term, and to put its inventory and labeling online. (cf. Intertrop project).
• To disseminate genetic resources locally or internationally.

The plant material present must of course be included in research programs, in particular in partnership with Brazil and the teams dealing with drought resistance.

Research and development topics

• Improvement of cultivation techniques with the aim of conservation and multiplication of Coffea genotypes. (Intertrop project).
• Local dissemination of Arabica (CLARA project)
• Trial of the establishment of bi-clonal robusta seed fields (diffusion of improved seeds).
• Testing of drought resistance of arabica lines.
• Creation, international dissemination and installation in trial of a robusta progeny in disjunction.
• Characterization of genotypes: observations on maturation speeds and groupings.
• Participation in various genetic studies: coffee diterpenes, Arcad 1 project, genetics of drought resistance.

Partners

• EMBRAPA/CENARGEN (Brazil)
• CPAC (Brazil)
• IAPAR (Brazil)