Desempenho produtivo do café arábica no brejo paraibano

Abstract

Coffee is the second most consumed beverage in the world. As Brazil is the largest exporter and the second largest consumer, this raw material plays a major role in the country's economy. The marsh of Paraíba has potential for the production of the crop, so much so that it has already had extensive areas in the past. However, the lack of assistance, together with the occurrence of pests, practically decimated the region's coffee plantations. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate the productive performance of arabica coffee genotypes in Brejo Paraíba. The studies were carried out over a two-year period, 2018-2019 and 2019- 2020, in an experimental area belonging to the Center for Agricultural Sciences (CCA) of the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), in the municipality of Areia-PB, Brazil. The experimental design adopted was in randomized blocks, with three replications. The treatments consisted of twenty-one coffee genotypes. Each plot consisted of five plants with spacing of 3 m × 0.5 m. The vegetative vigor and production data (fruit ripening stage, °brix and yield) were collected 24 months after planting, where the parameters were evaluated in the three central plants. Data were analyzed for normality by the Shapiro-Wilk test, homogeneity of variance by the Bartlett test and analysis of variance by the F test (p < 0.05). Variable means were compared using the Scott-Knott test (p < 0.05). There was a significant effect on the evaluated characteristics, except for oBrix. Of the 21 genotypes tested, 11 had the highest vegetative vigor rating. As for the maturation stage of the coffee fruits harvested in the first harvest, the average percentages of green fruits ranged from 28.2% to 71.1%, ripe (cherry), from 9.2% to 60.3%, from passes between 1.9% and 47.7% and for dried fruits from 0.9% to 14.3%. Only six genotypes (T13 II, T13 I, T21 I, Catiguá Amarelo FBS, T1 I and Paraíso 4 Vermelho) had averages below 40% of green fruits. Regarding grain yield, genotypes T5 II, T16 II, Campos Altos, T15 I and T8 I stood out statistically with the highest yields (36,43 sc ha-1 ) on average. The genotypes with the highest yield of processed coffee had averages above the Brazilian average. Which demonstrates that the region has potential for culture. As it is a perennial crop that has two-year production, it is necessary to evaluate the yield components over several harvests and in more than one location within the municipality.