Considerations in Breeding and Selection for Certain Important Characters in Arabica Coffee(Coffea Arabica L.)

Implications of the results in breeding programmes are discussed. A breeding scheme is proposed aimed at developing compact high yielding coffee varieties with good quality which also combine resistance to the two main diseases of arabica coffee, coffee berry disease and coffee rust. The breeding scheme entails either development of hybrid varieties, or a programme of further selection to derive seed varieties. Important features of such a scheme are, 1) the use of information on genetic basis of variation for certain characters in planning hybridization programmes and, 2) a drastically reduced breeding cycle per generation as a result of basing selection, within each generation, on fairly young coffee trees. Keywords: Coffea arabica, coffee yield, compact growth, coffee quality, disease resistance DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/9-11-03 Publication date:June 30th 201