The 2012 ASHS Annual Conference

Coffee is an extremely important agricultural commodity (Vega et al. 2003) produced in about 80 tropical countries, with an annual production of nearly seven million tons of green beans (Musoli et al. 2009). It is the second most valuable commodity exported by developing countries after oil, with over 75 million people depending on it for their livelihood (Vega et al. 2003; Pendergrast 2009). It is thought that coffee was introduced to Yemen from its origins in Ethiopia around the sixth century (Pendergrast 1999). From Yemen, two genetic bases spread giving rise to most of the present commercial cultivars of Arabica coffee grown worldwide (Anthony et al. 2002). The two sub-populations of wild coffee introduced from Ethiopia to Yemen underwent successive reductions in genetic diversity with the first reduction occurring with the introduction of coffee to Yemen 1,500 to 300 years ago (Anthony et al. 2002). Introduction of coffee to Java, Amsterdam, and La Réunion at the beginning of the 18^thcentury led to further reductions in genetic diversity (Anthony et al. 2002). In addition to Ethiopia, the Boma Plateau of South Sudan (Thomas 1942; Meyer 1965) and Mount Marsabit in northern Kenya are also considered to be centers of genetic diversity of C. arabica (Meyer 1965). A consortium led by Texas A&M University’s Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture has been commissioned to support the John Garang University of Science and Technology (JG-MUST). The goal is to improve applied agriculture and technical education, create research capacity and institutional linkages to increase productivity, conservation, and resource management of coffee. The specific research objectives of the Germplasm Assessment and Conservation project are: 1) assessment of genetic diversity of wild populations of Coffea arabica in the Boma Plateau; and 2) based on genetic diversity studies, establish a Coffea field genebank in South Sudan using specimens representing the greatest genetic diversity.