Publisher's Synopsis
Coffee is the most important commodity in global trade after petroleum products. It is grown in over 80 countries in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, contributing substantially to their national economies. It is an extremely important agriculture crop with more than 6.5 million tons of green bean produced every year in about 11 million hectares and which accounts to more than 10 billion US$ in international trade. Arabica coffee with superior quality accounts for nearly 70 percent of global production, while robusta accounts for the remaining 30 percent. The genus Coffea is the most economically important member of the family Rubiaceae. The main coffee of commercially important viz., arabica coffee (Fig. 1), Coffea arabica L. (2n=44) is indigenous to the highlands of Ethiopia and the Boma plateau in the Sudan. The next important one, robusta coffee (Fig. 1a), Coffea canephora Pierre ex. Froehner (2n=22) in a diversity of forms occur wildly in the equatorial forest from West Africa to Lake Victoria, mainly between 100 north and south of the equator from sea level to 1500m. The coffee industry provides work for an estimated 20 million people employed in cultivation, processing and trade throughout the world (Wrigley, 1988). During the year 2010-11 world green coffee production was around 7.5 million tones and production of India may reach 3.02 lack tons.
