Coffee forests with its varied landscape coupled with multiple fruit and flowering trees, makes it an ideal habitat for butterflies. The advantage of such an ecosystem is that it provides bountiful flowers throughout the year as a rich source of nectar for various pollinating agents, especially butterflies. It is for this very reason that one […]
Organic Matter Decomposition and Mushrooms
Coffee Forests in India are recognized world over as forests having the most diverse flora and fauna accommodating coffee and multiple crops. The significance of these forests, in terms of its symbiotic association with various biotic components is often overlooked. Our research and publication of papers for the last three decades enumerating the role of […]
Water Use Efficiency for Robusta Coffee
Coffee, being an evergreen bush, requires a high regime of soil moisture during the dry months. In India, coffee usually encounters four to five months of dry spell in a year. The Robusta variety of coffee is more susceptible to drought and needs irrigation to sustain itself compared to the Arabica’s. The rainfall inside the […]
Importance of Healthy Coffee Soils
The British pioneers cultivated coffee in the hilly tracts of the Western Ghats in forest soils, rich in organic matter and humus. Hence, coffee grew luxuriantly because of the nutrient rich soils and excellent shade pattern. More importantly, prior to 1989, expansion of Coffee Plantations into new areas and Agro climatic regions was restricted by […]
Shade Coffee & the Vanishing Honey Bees
From the very inception of the Coffee Plantations, honey bees has been an integral part of the Coffee Forests. Coffee and bees has always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. As a matter of rule, with very few exceptions, every Plantation is known to accommodate a select set of trees where large colonies of honey bees live. […]
Antivenom: Why it’s so precious
The Western Ghats, recognized world over as a center of biological diversity is also recognized for growing India’s finest shade coffees. Coffee Forests in India are by and large associated with wildlife sanctuaries and also form a part of the Nilgiri Biosphere region. These dense forests are located at elevations ranging from 750 meters right […]