Is Arabica better than Robusta?

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I believe many friends have seen a piece of news: Arabica is on the verge of extinction. The main idea of the news is that due to climate reasons, wild Arabica will become extinct in the wild in 2080, that is to say, there will be no delicious coffee to drink.

So the question is, why Arabica, not Robusta? Arabica is more delicious, and 70% of Arabica coffee in global circulation is Arabica coffee, which should be a more advanced and excellent variety, and should be planted more widely, but why face extinction first?

This has to make a biological analysis of Arabica and Robusta, which is the topic we are talking about today-who is the more advanced?

First of all, let's take a look at the growth conditions of these two.

Although both Arabica and Robusta grow in the coffee belt: between latitude 45 °south and north, we often say that Arabica is planted at an altitude of more than 800 meters. Arabica requires high planting conditions and is weak in resistance to diseases and insect pests. Robusta is planted below 800 meters above sea level. Robusta has strong adaptability and strong resistance to diseases and insect pests.

There are two problems: the ability to resist diseases and insect pests, and the ability to adapt to the environment.

Resistance to diseases and insect pests

What is resistance to diseases and insect pests? To put it simply, it is the ability not to be eaten out. Think about it, if you are a fungus of coffee leaf rust, or a bug that eats coffee beans, would you prefer warm, humid or cold and dry? The former, of course! Relatively speaking, if I am a coffee tree growing up in a warm and humid environment, if I want to continue to reproduce, I need to evolve the ability to resist diseases and pests, and one of the abilities is caffeine. Caffeine is the most commonly used psychotropic drug in the world for humans, while for nature it is a natural insecticide that paralyzes insects that eat caffeinated plants.

At this point, you can see why Robusta has several times more caffeine than Arabica. The survival of the fittest by natural selection is the core idea of Darwin's "Origin of species".

Adaptability to the environment

With regard to adaptation to the environment, the previous one is a kind of adaptability to external damage, while other adaptations, including temperature and humidity, viability of fusion in the growing environment (mainly temperature change), droughts and floods, wind disasters and so on, let's continue to talk.

Altitude, which is the watershed of Adou and Luodou growing areas, of course, the lower the altitude, the higher the temperature, so there are more high-altitude or low-altitude areas in our coffee belt at present? And what is the basis for the prediction of Arabica's stunts in 2080 at the beginning of the article? It's the temperature. For species, only by adapting to the growing environment can they reproduce. In this respect, Robusta is more suitable for survival.

When it comes to adaptation to environmental fusion and other disasters, we have to cut it from a genetic point of view. We all probably know that Arabica has 44 chromosomes, while Robusta has 22 chromosomes; Arabica is self-pollinated and Robusta is cross-pollinated.

The more chromosomes, the more complex and perhaps more advanced the genes, but our focus is on pollination, that is, heredity.

In general, plants obtained by cross-pollination are of higher quality-offspring produced by cross-pollination have the genetic traits of two parent plants, which are likely to produce new characteristics that help it survive in a changing environment. In fact, Arabica, especially in the past, American Arabica coffee is quite fragile, which can be traced back to their original origin. The first coffee tree rooted in the American continent came from the Netherlands, and due to the characteristics of self-pollination in Arabica, the gene will become more and more single in the process of reproduction (without the participation of foreign genes). Therefore, if there are some diseases or disasters, the coffee group with the same gene may be wiped out! So now scientists are trying to hybridize Arabica to improve genetic diversity, or go back to Ethiopia, the natural coffee gene pool where coffee originated, to find a solution.

Kaduai and Katim are two obvious examples.

Kaduai is a hybrid (intraspecific hybrid) of New World and Kaddura, which inherits the advantages of Kaddura's low stature and changes the shortcomings of the New World; it also makes up for the weakness of Arabica fruit, and the result is solid and not easy to fall in the face of strong winds. However, Kaduai is still difficult to resist diseases and insect pests and is gradually replaced by other varieties.

Katim is a hybrid of Kaddura and Timor (interspecific hybridization). It has the characteristics of high yield and good disease resistance, but its flavor is more insipid. Although Katim has the Luodou gene, it is an Arabica species after all. With the genetic iteration, Katim's resistance to diseases and insect pests has decreased or even disappeared in some areas.

On the contrary, the pure Robusta species can better maintain genetic diversity by cross-pollination, and the genetic mutations produced in the genetic process will be easier to preserve and spread, which can be said to be superior to the reproduction of the population.

Next, when it comes to planting, the higher the altitude, the more fragile the ecological chain (less biodiversity), so the growers of high-quality coffee must plant all kinds of plants around the coffee trees, protect forests and animals, use organic fertilizers, and so on. To ensure that the ecology is not destroyed, otherwise Arabica coffee will be more difficult to survive. Robusta, on the other hand, can survive even if the planting conditions are a little rough, that is, it is more suitable for the environment.

When it comes to human choice, people who say Arabika is superior than Robusta actually say that they are better in flavor. The reason why people first eat coffee beans is that they can make people excited and it is an expression of biological use of nature. Later, more Arabica was planted because it was delicious. But put aside the flavor and look at the biological use, it may be the world of Robusta, after all, there is more caffeine to be extracted. Then let's look at the environmental value. A survey of the current situation of coffee cultivation in India found that 75% of coffee farmers who grow Arabica coffee use insecticides, while only 19% of those who grow Robusta use pesticides (after all, they bring their own pesticides), which may be more environmentally friendly for birds and other animals, as well as a good protection for the surrounding ecological diversity. Of course, in forest habitats with high bird diversity, researchers have also found high diversity of other species, such as mammals, amphibians and trees, some of which are very rare. This shows that the coffee plantations in the mountains do not cause serious damage to the diversity of birds and other organisms.

To sum up, biologically, robusta coffee actually has more superior survival habits, while in economics, Arabica coffee is slightly better than Arabica coffee. As for the historical humanities, the value of Arabica coffee is even more prominent-many great works of art, love stories and even revolutions that change the fate of a country come from cafes, and coffee can bring people unlimited inspiration and motivation. Of course, the drink is delicious Arabica coffee.

What do you think about who is more advanced, Arabica or Robusta?