Comparison of the performance of ten coffee cultivars (Coffea arabica L.) in three years of production at the Experimental Station of Sapecho, Sud Yungas Province, La Paz Department

Casto Maldonado Fuentes

Abstract

In Bolivia, the department of La Paz is the largest producer of coffee with 15925 productive units and an average yield of 391 kg ha^-1 similar to the national one, compared to the global average yield which is 700 kg ha^-1, which is low. It is attributed to several factors, such as the existing genetic material, advanced age of the plantations, inadequate management, loss of fertility in soils as well as the presence of pests and diseases. The research work was developed at the Experimental Station of Sapecho, Faculty of Agronomy of the Major San Andres University in 2015, 2016 and 2017 management incorporating 10 new coffee cultivars that are CEPAC-1, CEPAC-2, CEPAC -3, CEPAC-4, Red Catuai, Icatu Precoz, Tupi, Paradise, Castle (from the interior and exterior of the country) and Red Catuai (witness), which were evaluated under a randomized block design with three repetitions and comparison of stockings using the LSD Fisher test. The average yields obtained show that the cultivars CEPAC-4 and CEPAC-3 responded significantly in the three years of evaluation, obtaining average yield of 1673, 1549 and 1300 kg ha^-1 of gold coffee, differences in the productive behavior were observed of the cultivars in the three years, obtaining as a general average a yield of 584 kg ha^-1 for 2015, 1574 kg ha^-1 for 2016 and 1326 kg ha^-1 for 2017, being statistically the same in the last two years, while the Red Catuai cultivar (control) presented 629 kg ha^-1. The cup test indicates of the cultivars Catuai Rojo (control), Catuai Rojo, Paraíso and Castillo obtained from 84.0 to 85.6 points, likewise the latter had a larger exportable grain size with 91.2%.