> Farming Practices
Best practices in coffee farming
- Need for replanting and advantages
- Preparation of field for replanting - uprooting, soil treatment, preparation of planting holes
- Choice of variety, planting and after care
- Rejuvenation - when to adopt and advantages
- Rebuilding of missing canopy - how to do it
- Top grafting - coversion of off type plants - after acre and maintenance
- Why need for pruning
- Training of coffee trees (topping/ pollarding)
- Pruning of single stem/ multiple stem trees, when to prune & how to prune
- Major pests of coffee, pre-disposing factors, symptoms of damage & losses, prevention strategies (mechanical, cultural etc.), dosage, frequency and method of application of pesticides
- Major diseases of coffee, pre-disposing factors, symptoms of damage & losses, prevention strategies (mechanical, cultural etc.), dosage, frequency and method of application of fungicides
- Soil conservation: Need for soil conservation, prevention of soil erosion (contour row planting, soil binding grass bunds)
- Soil moisture conservation: Need for moisture conservation and methods of moisture conservation (staggered trenches, green manure crops, mulches etc.)
- Soil testing - why it is needed and how frequently
- Soil amendments - for correcting soil pH & its significance
- Types of sources of plant nutrition - fertilizers, micro-nutrients, organic manures & biofertilizers
- Dosage & time of application of fertilizers (macronutrients & micronutrients)
- Quantity & time of application of organic manures & biofertilizers
- Harvesting
- On-farm drying of fruits - sun drying, mechanical drying (driers)
- On-farm storage of dry cherry
- On-farm hulling of dry cherry and handling