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 Between one and another sip of coffee, Aristóteles Martins de Oliveira, a coffee producer from the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, tells the story of how it was to produce the grain in the 1930s. He recalls how coffee farmers fought against a plague of tree borers that affected many crops.
The farmers used arsenic. They put the coffee in a hole, threw arsenic on it, and left it for one night. When they opened the hole, the insects were dead. The problem was that the toxic product also harmed the farmers. Some died. Times have changed. Today pests are fought with genetics. Throughout Brazil, institutes and universities are seeking solutions to improve coffee growing. Since 2004, the country has had the largest data bank on the coffee genome. The Coffee Genome Project is an initiative by the Brazilian Coffee Research and Development Consortium (CBPD/Café), which brings together over 40 research institutions and is coordinated by the Coffee department at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). In the Genome Project, specifically, nine of them are directly involved. The bank has over 200,000 DNA sequences, which permitted the identification of around 30,000 expressive genes. "They are those that present the greatest tolerance to drought and resistance to pests," explained Gabriel Ferreira Bartholo, general manager of the Embrapa Coffee. Now, the technicians have gone on to the second phase, in which they check whether these genes promote resistance to external factors. "We want to identify which genes interfere in the flowering and maturing, aimed at the improvement of the quality of the fruit," explained Bartholo. There are over 100 kinds of coffee, but just two are planted commercially, Arabica and Robusta. "But other varieties may include genes that can be used in the genetic improvement of these two commercial varieties," explained the Embrapa Coffee manager. Bartholo believes that within ten years it will be possible to test genetic inbreeding in crops. One of these objectives is to increase the productivity, betting on species that may be more resistant to pests and diseases - reducing costs to producers, who spend up to 12% of production costs on pesticides. With these more resistant species, production would leap from the current average of 19 bags per hectare to between 30 and 32 bags per hectare. Up to now investment in the project has reached US$ 4.2 million, being half the funds invested by the Funcafé (a fund turned to the coffee sector) and the other half by Brazil's Ministry of Science and Technology. The genetic information bank is divided into two parts, one at the Unicamp, in Campinas, and another at Embrapa Café, in Brazilian capital Brasília. Bartholo believes that within a year, the bank will be open to researchers who are not members of the Consortium. According to the manager, the bank is already a global reference in the sector and the Consortium has been working in partnership with the Center for International Cooperation in Agronomical Research (Cirad), in France, which has tradition in research of the Robusta variety. 120 Years of Tradition One of the Embrapa Coffee partners in the Genome Project is the Campinas Institute of Agronomy (IAC), a traditional coffee research center. The IAC, for instance, was initially established specifically for research of the fruit. That was exactly 120 years ago. "Of the four billion coffee Arabica trees planted in Brazil, 90% are varieties developed or selected by the IAC," stated Luiz Carlos Fazuoli, director general of the Coffee Center at the Institute. The Robusta species is also in the plans of the IAC, as there is demand for the species in São Paulo, which purchases around 1.7 million bags of Robusta coffee from Espírito Santo (Southeast Brazil) and Rondônia (North). In 2004, IAC researchers discovered a variety of decaffeinated Arabica coffee by accident. The grains had been in the IAC germplasm bank for almost 40 years. According to Fazuoli, the variety was brought from Ethiopia for genetic improvement in 1965. In October 2003, the IAC, in partnership with the Unicamp, decided to test the grain and discovered that the level of caffeine was 0.06%. Conventional grain has between 1% and 1.2% caffeine. The researchers showed their discovery to British magazine "Nature". The following step was to collect seeds, produce saplings and start commercial growing. This process is still in progress and it may still take 10 years for the grain to be sold commercially. "In Brazil, just 1% of the consumption of coffee is decaf, but in the United States this consumption is already at 10%," explained Fazuoli. The IAC work has also travelled outside Brazilian frontiers. According to Fazuoli, 90% of the coffee crops of Costa Rica are varieties selected by the IAC. In Colombia, which is the second greatest world producer of coffee, 70% of the coffee crops are of varieties that were also improved by the IAC. Technology from Minas In Minas Gerais, which concentrates half of the national production, there are various programs turned to the improvement of coffee. "More economic and optimized production is sought, but there is also a strong pressure of the society for environmental preservation," explained Paulo Gontijo, coffee farming research manager at the Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company (Epamig), another Embrapa partner in the Genome Project. According to Gontijo, 24 researchers work full-time on the project. They are based in universities - the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) and the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) - and in five experimental farms in the state of Minas. In 2006, the group worked on 68 projects in various areas, from genetics to the improvement of coffee and climatology. With regard to genetic improvement, the program also brought together the work for improvement of the Rubi, Topaz, Acaiá and Cerrado varieties. "They adapted well to the different coffee production regions in the state. They are rustic, mature simultaneously and are adapted to mechanic harvesting, characteristics that bring them a special value," explained Gontijo. These varieties will continue being improved and should bring productivity gains of 1% a year. United Coffee Farmers The Guaxupé Regional Cooperative of Coffee Producers (Cooxupé), the largest in the country, also seeks improvement of its associates' coffee beans using technology. With 11,000 associates spread throughout Minas and the North of São Paulo, the cooperative has a group of professionals who personally meet producers of all sizes, according to Lúcio Dias, the commercial superintendent of Cooxupé. Among the most important works developed by the organization is analysis of the soil and leaves. "Analysis of soil guarantees the correct doses of inputs in the earth. The leaf analysis is complementary, and shows whether the plant is answering well to its soil." In 2006, Cooxupé received 4.4 million bags of Arabica coffee. This amount was larger than that forecasted at the beginning of the year - 3.9 million bags. For the 2007 crop year, however, the forecast is 2.5 million bags. Challenge: To Improve Conillon If initiatives are arising all around the country for the improvement of Arabica coffee, in Espírito Santo, the challenge is to improve Conillon - a coffee considered inferior, but of great importance on the domestic and foreign market. It is a raw material for instant coffee. Neutral, it may be added without changing the taste of Arabica coffee, just adding volume. In the state, both kinds of coffee are produced. The colder regions are more adequate for Arabica, and the warmer areas for Conillon. The 2006 crop reached 2.1 million bags of Arabica and 6.9 million bags of Conillon. In Espírito Santo, the research is headed by the Espírito Santo State Research, Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Institute (Incaper) - another Embrapa partner -, which is connected to the state Agriculture, Supply, Aquiculture and Fishery Secretariat. Through the program for genetic improvement, Incaper has already released six varieties of Conillon coffee. Conillon Vitória was the last, launched in 2004. Its main characteristic is high productivity - 70 bags per hectare of non-irrigated land, and it may rise as high as 123 bags in natural conditions. For the coming years, Incaper has accepted a challenge: to develop Conillon as not just a neutral drink, tasteless, but as a coffee with good aroma and flavor. With the investment made, the institute forecasts a positive scenery for Conillon in the state within seven years. Annual production should reach 12 million bags - it is currently at seven million. That is without expanding the area, just increasing average productivity, which should rise from 22.5 to 40 bags per hectare. Daily Doses of Health The cure to all evils? That's not really true. Coffee helps prevent a series of metabolic diseases like diabetes, and reduce the risk of diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, among other benefits, like aiding in burning fat. But coffee is not medicine, but a functional food. That is, it has entered the list of foods that protect the body from diseases and that should be included in the daily diet. This conclusion was reached by professors Teresa Helena Macedo and José Garrofe Dórea, of the Nutrition Department of the National University of Brasília (UnB), in 2005. The study was developed based on an analysis of 200 global researches about the effects of coffee. Since then, according to professor Dórea, other researches have been done on the matter, but none of them disproved or contested their theory that coffee is a functional food. On the contrary. "It has even become common to use the term," he says. Now, Dórea and Helena are guiding a group of students who want to check whether these beneficial effects are true to the entire Brazilian population. The professor explains: "it is necessary to organize a study of the consumption standards of Brazilians to know whether coffee reacts well to other foods." That is, coffee is a functional food, but might it have different effects on different populations. The study coordinated by the professors is going to analyze the consumption of coffee of thousands of Brazilians and should end within three or four years. But one thing is certain: coffee is not harmful. Different from what was believed 20 or 30 years ago, the drink is not harmful to the health. "Of course it can be harmful to one person, as each individual reacts to foods in a different manner. But to the population as a whole, it is no problem," explained Dórea, he himself, victim of an exaggerated diagnosis and prohibited from drinking coffee for over 20 years. The problem, explained Dórea, is that two decades ago coffee was not studied, caffeine was. "They were pharmacological tests, and focussed on a different area," he explained. Freed from coffee's fame as a villain, professor Dórea was allowed to drink it. Now the professor who studies the drink has also been freed from guilt. "Nowadays I drink even more than I used to," he jokes. Débora Rubin and Geovana Pagel also contributed to this article. Anba - www.anba.com.br
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