Dr. Pascal Musoli, Senior Research Officer at NaCORIBusiness Focus recently revealed how scientists at National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI) are developing drought- tolerant Robusta coffee varieties with support from the European Union through the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD).The European Union through CIRAD committed 713,000 Euros towards this research project.ALSO READ: NaCORI’s Drought-Tolerant, High-Yielding Coffee Varieties Performing Well In Field Trials-ResearchersAli Milton, a Makerere University PhD student, who’s one of the researchers on this project, says the drought-tolerant plants are being tried out in farmers’ fields in drought-prone areas such as Nakaseke, Ssembabule and Ntungamo districts.When asked how many varieties that are performing well in the filed out of the 17, Milton said four varieties are highly promising.Dr. Pascal Musoli, a senior coffee breeder at NaCORI, added that in the trials, they have included the best of the current varieties i.e KR8-10 as controls/checks. In simple terms, the drought- tolerant varieties are being benchmarked against KR8-10 in terms of performance.“The varieties are very good; they are promising. From the first observation, I can see they have big cherries, a lot of cherries on the primaries and they are withstanding the hot temperatures in those environments which has been lacking in the current varieties. I am confident that when time comes for presentation, they will be passed. They are good,” Musoli, who’s credited for spearheading the development of KR varieties, said.He says that KR8 can produce an average of 3100kg green beans (kasse) per hectare per year, while KR9 and KR10 can yield an average of 3900kg and 4800kg respectively.“Although the drought-tolerant varieties are in their initial stages of production/yielding (two years old), their yield falls within the range of KR8-10,” Dr. Musoli said.However, asked on when nursery operators and farmers, who are the end users, should expect to have these varieties, Dr. Musoli, said scientists follow a structured process before releasing new varieties. If all goes well, he says, these varieties can be ready for multiplication in the next five to six years.In this article, Dr. Musoli explains in detail, the process scientists and researchers follow before releasing new coffee varieties.Ongoing research: Coffee inside the Screen House. Researchers are trying to identify more coffee varieties that are drought-tolerantHe says researchers have to first compile scientific facts about the varieties. “They have to present the science of these varieties to the internal committee within NaCORI. The scientists/committee within NaCORi will then vet whether these materials qualify be new varieties. The Committee ensures that all facts and data desired by the committee above is included,” he says, adding that if it passes this stage, NaCORI and the researchers write a technical report which is submitted to the Director General, NARO, who asks his Committee, made up of different experts to critically look at the NaCORI report and the presentation of the scientists/researchers.“They always don’t pass anything anyhow. They’ll have to screen it and in case there’s missing data, they’ll give us feedback to fill the missing gaps. If it is convincing, they’ll submit the report to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Variety Release Committee. When it reaches that level, we have no control. The Committee will then invite the scientists to make their final presentation. It is that Committee that will accept your variety as new or not. The new variety should have unique characters different from what we have released before. It should meet the farmers’ needs and be good for the development of the country,” he explains, adding that it is at this stage that they announce the release of a new variety for commercialization.After the release of the new varieties, multiplication of planting materials begins.“We are in the second year of evaluation. We expect to have a concrete report in the 3rd year which will be discussed here. After the report is presented to the office of DG, NARO, it will take another six months. Then it will go to MAAIF. From there, it can come quickly or delay but normally it doesn’t go beyond six months. For multiplication, which is a continuous process, we shall have a few materials available to nursery operators for multiplication as soon as the variety is released. That can take another two years before the plantlets are available to the farmers. It is not an easy process, so, to have plantlets in big numbers available to farmers can happen in five to seven years after the release,” Dr. Musoli explains.He says multiplication will be by various vegetative methods.“Here we have the tissue culture facility which can accelerate the production of these materials in large numbers or on a large scale,” he says, adding: “NaCORI has adopted a method called mini-cuttings where we produce a few plantlets from the lab and chop those plantlets internode by internode. They are still younger shoots but can still develop roots or regenerate them in a special environment.”Like Coffee Wilt Disease Resistant varieties (CWDr) commonly known as KR (Kituza Robusta) varieties, Dr. Musoli says the third approach is planting the selected plantlets in mother gardens that serve as a source of cuttings that are potted into polythene bags. These develop roots and grow into plantlets that are served to farmers.Naming varietiesDr. Musoli says the name of a variety is adopted at the Committee Release Committee Level, but quickly added that farmers, who are the end-users are the best in naming varieties.For example, MAAIF had named the Coffee Wilt Disease Resistant varieties lines “Kituza NARO Robusta Variety 1-10, but farmers deemed it too long and simply called it “KR”.The nine wilt resistant varieties are now known as KR1-10. It’s important to note that KR2 has since been withdrawn over performance related issues. 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