Dr. Pereira and M.S. Pereira on Shadegrown Coffee

Dr. Pereira and his family.
Photo courtesy of
Dr. Pereira

Dr. Pereira is a microbiologist & a coffee farmer and owns the Kirehully Estate in the Western Ghats, in Hassan District, India. Ms. Geeta Pereira, wife of Dr. Anand Pereira is a horticulturist and a coffee farmer.

How much of the coffee in India is shade grown and what percentage of coffee currently marketed by India is gourmet coffee?

The coffee grown in India is all shade grown. Hardly 3 to 5% of the coffee grown is marketed as gourmet coffee.

The coffee ranges in India are considered to be home for wildlife sanctuaries – can you explain this to us?

The coffee ranges in India are located in the heart of the Western Ghats, considered one among the 18 hot spots of the globe. The most important part is that this Western ghat preserve is home to some of the most threatened species of of flora and fauna. The coffee mountains and valleys form a continuous chain and house various species of wildlife. It is a symbol of coexistence. For example, even today within an aerial distance of 15kms from my farm one can frequently see bison, sambar, and deer. wild bore, blackbuck, etc. inside the coffee ranges. The Western Ghats runs along the West coast of South India and covers various places along the mountains – the Anamalais, the Pulneys, the Sahyadris, the Nilgiris, and the High Ranges. These coffee ranges are home to wildlife sanctuaries, National parks, tiger reserves, and biodiversity plantations. The Bandipur National park flanked by Nagarahole National park, Madhumalai wildlife sanctuary and Wayanad wildlife sanctuary, together constitute the protected Nilgiri biosphere reserve, which is India’s first biosphere reserve. This reserve is a key breeding landscape for tigers, elephants, sambars, and other mega fauna distributed across the three states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Coffee plantations have all along acted as migratory corridors for wildlife. In a few instances the Government over the years has expanded the original wildlife sanctuaries by acquiring the neighboring plantations in order to establish breeding grounds for threatened species like tigers. For example just a few years back, the Government formed the Kudremukh National Park which again is surrounded by coffee plantations. Apart from these bioreserves many smaller protected forests adjourn the plantations. Hence it is a mixture of the old and new.

What is the impact of global warming on shade grown coffee plantations in India?

Firstly, from the physiological view point, the coffee plant is a self programmed bush. The coffee bush is a biological factory, programmed to perform different functions at various stages of growth and development. Coffee cultivation depends on set patterns of soil, climate and ecosystems. Over thousands of years the coffee bush has evolved to tune into the series of natures formulas which are a part and parcel of the coffee mountain. Due to global warming the weather patterns are erratic and unpredictable and the coffee bush is in an utter state of confusion. Due to the impact of global warming the bush remains in a confused state and the internal programming gets corrupted .There is considerable delay in the production of productive woods, flower primordia, and the entire biological clock of the coffee plants goes for a toss. The major impact is the significant reduction in yields in spite of following the regular package of practices. The quality of coffee is badly affected. The land is under tremendous pressure to deliver a higher output but the end result is higher incidence of pests and diseases due to the ecological imbalances as a consequence of global warming. Incidences of new chemical resistant races of pathogens have also been recorded.

Are there any unique characteristics for how coffee is grown in Indian plantations?

• THREE TIERED CANOPY
  Basically, Indian coffee plantations grow shade grown coffee in various environment friendly ways - under the canopy of a mixed shade of a three-tier shade system. A lot of care is taken in selecting the trees to be introduced. The primary shade or the lower shade is taken care of by nitrogen fixing Erythrina lithosperma (DADAP) or by Glyrecedia maculata. These legumes have nodules on their root system capable of harvesting atmospheric nitrogen and in turn supply nitrogen to the coffee plant in the available form. The secondary shade is that of trees like silver oak, fig trees, white and red cedar that shed their leaves in the monsoon season and put forth a rich canopy during the summer. These trees are specifically selected because they act like factories providing tremendous biomass there by increasing the humus and organic content of the soil. The canopy also helps in keeping the soil temperatures low. The secondary shade also consists of fruit trees like Eugilina jamboolina, ficus, gobbara neralu, jumblum, wildjack, and other exotic jungle trees, which profusely bear fruit throughout the year and enrich the soil. These fruiting trees attract birds and also provide a nesting lodge on the tree branches. Some of these tree species are known to hold thousands of gallons of water in their root system and make it available to the plant in the summer months. Lastly, the tertiary shade is of the hardwood species, which attract rain-bearing clouds. This three tier shade system, aids in filtering the harmful U.V. radiation. Furthermore, the filtered sunlight enables the sugars in the coffee bean to caramelise uniformly and give it a unique taste of nature in the cupping quality. No other country in the world has this amount of biological diversity within the heart of the coffee mountain.
• MULTIDIVERSITY
  Enhancing the biodiversity of the farm is uppermost in the minds of the farmer. Monocropping is the exception in Indian coffee plantations. The rule is a range of simultaneously growing crops. No other plantations in the world have the range of diversity as that seen in Indian coffee plantations. The difference is the multiple, mixed cropping systems. Pepper vines are grown on shade trees (live standards), cardamom, Areca nut, ginger, citrus, vanilla and a few other spices are grown as multiple crops inside the Coffee Plantations. The roots of herbs and spices get intertwined with the coffee roots resulting in a unique taste of nature in the cupping quality.
• Every plantation has a living hedge which acts as a fence to protect it from stray cattle. (We have observed that in some parts of the west they use man made barriers to demarcate the boundaries).

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