Coffee fragrance from Pu'er the cooperation between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences helps the development of coffee industry.

Cooperation between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Land to promote the Development of Coffee Industry our reporter Wang Shan

When it comes to tea city Pu'er, many people will think of Pu'er tea. However, as everyone knows, Pu'er is not only famous for its tea flavor, but also known as the "coffee capital of China" overseas.

Recently, the Pu'er Coffee Culture Festival ended perfectly with the "Pu'er Coffee Tour". During this coffee event, a high-quality coffee demonstration garden in Manxieba, Nanping Town, Simao District, attracted the attention of coffee leaders in the world and Ted Ringer, former president of the Fine Coffee Association of America.

Coffee tastes good and trees are hard to plant. Manheba boutique coffee farm is actually the epitome of Pu'er coffee. A local official lamented that without the technical support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for more than 20 years, there would be no vibrant coffee industry in Pu'er today.

The first high-quality coffee demonstration garden

Pu'er is located near the Tropic of Cancer. Affected by topography and altitude, Pu'er has obvious vertical climate characteristics, ranging from 376m to 3306 m. Its unique natural geographical environment and climatic conditions are especially suitable for the cultivation of small-grain coffee. The coffee produced here is uniform and full, bright in luster, high in flavor and mellow.

Because of this, in the early 1980s, there was a coffee-growing craze in Pu'er, where coffee varieties from Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and other places gathered. However, due to lack of technical knowledge, cluttered varieties and other factors, these bases have gradually disappeared.

The predecessor of Manxieba boutique coffee farm was the high-quality coffee demonstration base established by Kunming Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Simao District (now renamed Pu'er City).

"at that time, it was the third time that Pu'er had grown coffee, and none of it had been made in front of it." At that time, long Yiming, a senior agronomist in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, had not yet retired. "the coffee grown in the botanical garden is much better than that planted by ordinary people sporadically. According to the experiment, we believe that Pu'er can grow good coffee."

With this idea, the first step is to screen the varieties and find out which varieties of coffee are suitable for Pu'er. Long Yiming and others studied almost every variety of coffee at that time and finally selected a cold-tolerant and drought-tolerant Arabica coffee subspecies Katim.

"We have done soil diagnosis and coffee leaf diagnosis in the whole region, and everyone knows exactly where the soil is missing and what elements are missing." Cai Chuantao, a researcher at the botanical garden, said that the first high-quality coffee demonstration garden in Pu'er was established with the efforts of researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Today, Manheba boutique coffee farm has become a coffee science and technology demonstration base for Pu'er, and relevant personnel have gone abroad to guide coffee cultivation in Udomse province, Laos.

Scientific research and technical strength to help prevent and control disasters

"Professor, professor." As soon as he saw Cai Chuantao, the local farmers in Pu'er called him so kindly.

"they are very kind to me. When they go home, they will kill their own chickens for me to eat and drink." Cai Chuantao said, "the local farmers are very simple."

In fact, the common people are the most sincere, who is good to them, they are also good to them.

Coffee trees are very sensitive to temperature. Generally speaking, when the temperature is below 5 degrees Celsius, cold damage will have a great impact on the growth and harvest of coffee trees.

In 1999, the coffee tree in Pu'er suffered the biggest cold damage in history. According to the traditional method, the farmer has to cut down all the cold-damaged coffee trees and replant them. In this way, it usually takes 3 years for the new coffee tree to bear fruit, and the high yield period can be reached in 5 years.

In the face of this cold injury, long Yiming thought of a way to speed up the recovery of coffee trees if they were pruned and appropriate conservation techniques were adopted. The results made the researchers very pleased that the frozen coffee trees only took more than a year and a half to bear fruit, reducing a lot of losses.

Until now, this technology is still in use. "We are now applying this technology to the improvement of the old coffee garden." Cai Chuantao said that the coffee garden that began in 1988 has entered a period of decline and production has begun to decline.

"A method of raising Coffee seedlings", "a method of Rapid recovery of Frozen Coffee plants", "a method of balanced fertilization for planting small Coffee".... The development and application of patented technologies by researchers have brought typical comprehensive benefits and scientific and technological demonstration to Pu'er.

Intensive promotion of industrial development

After graduating in 1989, Cai Chuantao began to engage in cooperation projects with local governments. He says he likes to engage in local activities. "you will find the local needs, and then do research according to the needs. For example, varieties and cold damage techniques are all based on local needs."

Now that there are varieties and techniques to deal with disasters, researchers have begun to create a set of comprehensive supporting technologies with high yield and high quality to promote the development of Pu'er coffee as a whole.

"We are integrating technology and want to solve problems intensively." Xie Jiwu, director of the party office of the Kunming Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the joint development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and local governments has left a mark not only on coffee, but also on the industrialization of Pu'er tea and local science and technology to help the poor.

At present, Cai Chuantao is leading a team to study medicinal plants. "there are already many models for doing underforest economy in Yunnan and plant economy under natural forests and plantations."

On the basis of cooperation with local governments, a number of innovative talents have been gradually cultivated.

Cai Chuantao is a case in point. When he first took part in the study of Pu'er coffee, he was still a fresh graduate, but now he has brought up a small team of 15 or 16 people to devote himself to the development of the local industry.

"many old scientific and technological personnel have been employed as scientific and technological consultants, and the local area can no longer do without our scientific and technological personnel." Xie Jiwu said.