IntheleadingcoffeeproducingState,theMinas
GeraisStateAgriculturalResearchCompany
(Epamig)promotessustainablecoffeefarming
T
he Minas Gerais State Agricul-
tural Research Company (Ep-
amig) has a 40-year experience
in coffee agribusiness. Since its
creation, it has always been en-
gaged in developing and adapting tech-
nologies with the objective to promote the
sustainability of the coffee supply chain
in its economic, social and environmental
scopes. According to researcher Anísio José
Diniz, manager at Embrapa Coffee’s Tech-
nology Transference Department, all the
research results on coffee farming and so-
cioeconomic studies on coffee are dissemi-
nated through technical publications.
“It is information and knowledge useful
tofarmersandtoallothercoffeefarmingseg-
ments”, says the agronomist, who refers to
the Epamig as oneof the ten institutions that
founded theCoffeeResearchConsortium. All
technological publications highlight themes
like genetic enhancement of Coffea arabi-
ca and Coffea canephora, management and
cultural practices, integrated pests and dis-
easemanagement, harvest andpost-harvest
procedures, socio-economy and organic cof-
fee farming, amongothers.
The technical bulletins published by the
Epamig include one that highlights alterna-
tive post control in coffee plants. The news-
letter features the main option character-
istics, as the mixture of calcium sulfate and
the extracts of neem seed. “These are prod-
ucts that have stood out for their efficiency
in works conducted in laboratory and in on-
fieldexperiments.Theyaresimpletouseand
are accepted by most organic coffee certify-
ing companies, as well as in the results of re-
search works focused on alternative control
of coffeeplant pests”, heexplains.
The company’s technical bulletins
equal address relevant questions, like ef-
ficient control of the coffee berry borer.
The material features good management
practices for monitoring and keeping the
pest under control, as it is the most severe
pest that attacks conilon coffee plants and
the second most damaging to Arabica cof-
fee. Another bulletin trains the farmers on
how to keep under control locusts that at-
tack coffee plantations, featuring biologi-
cal aspects, information on host plants and
damages, besides monitoring and chemi-
cal control techniques.
According to Diniz, Epamig also hands
out folders that clarify questions as how
the coffee plant rust surfaces, giving guid-
ance on how to identify the disease and
how to control it, including a demonstra-
tion of step by step monitoring. The fold-
er presents 10 coffee cultivars launched
by the Company and their main attributes,
like size, color of the fruit, resistance to dis-
eases, spacing between plants and pro-
ductive capacity. Al publications, in their
entirety, are available at the Epamig site
(Publications/Publications Available) and
in the Coffee Observatory, on the page of
the Coffee Research Consortium.
n
Sustainable
pillar
Sílvio Ávila
70
