There are two species of Coffea which are grown for commercial purposes: Coffea arabica and Coffea robusta. Both are cultivated solely between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, 23.5 degrees north and south of the equator. However, C. robusta is more pest and disease resistant and can withstand wider growing conditions suitable for commercial cultivation such as lower altitudes and higher temperatures, though it produces a reportedly unpleasant flavor (Hoffman 12). When planting land to coffee, young volcanic soils are very sought after due to high nutrient content leading to high yields (Preston 226),. In Brazil, “the most advanced and industrialized coffee-producing country in the world” (Hoffman 184), coffee is predominately grown on Terra Roxa, a soil derived from igneous rocks, and between 80 and 90 percent of the cultivated Terra Roxa land is planted to coffee (Preston 239). The 19th and 20th centuries brought a wave of land grabs for coffee production in Brazil: forests were cut and burned, soils robbed of their fertility, accelerated erosion, and land prices driven through the roof (Preston 226-238). A solution to alleviate erosion and regulate fertility loss in coffee lands is the implementation of agroforestry methods, or producing shade-grown coffee, as mineral nitrogen is better retained in a system incorporating nitrogen-fixing shade trees than in coffee monocultures (Munroe 40 & 45).
Works Cited:
Hoffman, James. 2014. The World Atlas of Coffee. 1st ed. Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books.
Munroe, J.W., G. Soto, Filho Virginio, R. Fulthorpe, and M.E. Isaac. 2015. “Soil Microbial and Nutrient Properties in the Rhizosphere of Coffee under Agroforestry Management.” Applied Soil Ecology 93: 40–46.
Preston, James. 1932. “The Coffee Lands of Southeastern Brazil.” Geographical Review 22 (2): 225–44.
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