The importance of shade for coffee beans

Coffee, one of the most important tropical crops in terms of global trade, is grown in biodiversity-rich rainforest regions where it currently covers eleven million hectares. The global demand for coffee continues to grow by 2% annually, and in pursuit of increased short-term productivity, traditionally shaded coffee plantations are being increasingly intensified and converted to more open sun coffee systems.

In this introductory text from a new publication in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, a team of team of researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences in India explain why they sought to investigate how tree biodiversity affects coffee production and quality. In order to do so, they measured and documented shade tree characteristics and coffee production and quality in an on-farm study in 25 agroforests in Kodagu, India. What they found is that maintaining a diverse native tree shade cover helps to preserve not only native tree diversity but also high coffee production and quality through a variety of mechanisms.

The new paper in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, entitled “Shade tree diversity enhances coffee production and quality in agroforestry systems in the Western Ghats,” is written by a team of authors from ETH and India, with doctoral student Maike Nesper, Ecosystem Management, as first author. The study reveals "important co-benefits of multispecies agroforestry systems for biodiversity conservation and coffee production. Nonetheless, intensification provides farmers with new livelihood options and income sources. To maintain high diversity agroforests, these opportunity costs need to be accounted for in developing realistic market strategies for biodiversity conservation."

Results of the study were also highlighted in The Hindu, an Indian newspaper. Read The Hindu article external page here

Read the full article online in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment external page here