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By Maricel Sequeira SAN JOSE, Nov 14 (IPS) - Intense scientific research is underway in the major coffee-producing countries of Central America to strengthen coffee species genetically in order to make them more resistant to disease and pests.
The origins of the millions of hectares of coffee plantations that extend from Mexico to Brazil can be traced back to 10 individual species brought to the American continent in the 18th century. This has led to coffee in the region being weak in terms of genetic composition, according to scientists.
Two individual types of coffee, one of the Typica variety and another of the Bourbon were the originary strands that gave rise to all the cultivation in Latin America. Today there are 100 types of Typica, but most of them are genetically identical.
Francois Anthony, a geneticists at the Orstom Institute in France, explained that due to their weak genetic composition, coffee plantations in Latin America are easy prey to disease that increase the cost of production. So, when coffee prices fall internationally, producers in latin America are left without sufficient funds to cover the cost of their crops.
''What we are proposing is a genetic solution; we intend to crossbreed locally cultivated species with wild varieties collected in Ethiopia between 1964 and 1966 by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO),'' Anthony stated.
The French scientist is part of the team of biotechnologists of the Tropical Agronomy Center for Research and Teaching (CATIE), an organization that groups the Central American countries, the Dominican Republic, and since 1996, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.
The wild varieties collected in Ethiopia in the mid 1960s were handed over to CATIE, which currently possesses a collection of some 2,000 varieties - one of the most extensive in the world.
Anthony indicated that studies conducted on this collection have allowed them to identify particular types with a strong resistance to nematodes, plagues like the red blight, and a disease know as coffee antragnosis.
At the moment, there are four hybrid types which have been selected, after 15 years of study and genetic improvement. Among these is Nemaya, a robust variety resistant to many nematodes but which does not produce high quality coffee. For this reason, it is used as a template which is grafted, after a determined period of growth, onto an arabica strand.
Francois Cote, director of the CATIE Centreer of Biotechnology, explained that the genetic strengthening of coffee requires a lengthy process.
After selection of the ''parent'' species of new hybrids then follows the crossing of the genetic material, its evaluation, multiplication, and finally, its diffusion.
He explained that the cloning system utilizes uses the leaf of a plant, and the embryos multiply by the millions in a bioreactor, and so generate new plants. This means that the Centre has the capability to supply new varieties to all the plantations in the region. Although there is really no limit, it is estimated that 10 million plants could be produced annually.
Anthony noted that the Biotechnology Center is developing a very cost-effective mechanism to multiply genetically strengthened plants.
He put emphasis on the research being conducted in Costa Rica, where wild varieties are being utilized to make hybrids for the first time. Moreover, he predicted that in a few years, new varieties with a stronger genetic composition will be produced, based on the 4 already identified.
While the scientist continue their work, however, questions have been raised over who has rights of use and ownership of the new products -- as has been the case in other centres of bio- technological research.
Until now, the Centre's programme has been financed by Central American governments, CATIE, the European Union, and the French government, but it seems like distributing the fruits of the research only among its financial supporters will prove a difficult task.
''No one wants to pay for the biodiversity study. Nonetheless, some countries that aren't members are requesting genetic material elaborated by the Center of Biotechnology,'' Anthony commented.
''This signals a conflict. On one hand, the members that pay are the ones who have the rights to the results of the research. On the other hand, the collection of wild varieties of coffee is public in character,'' he said.
Nonetheless, the experts prefer to continue with their work and postpone the resolution of the political conflicts of biotechnology. (FIN/IPS/mso/dam/dv-sc/mg/97)
