How Coffee is Grown and Harvested
Coffee is able to grown between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. This region around the includes Central America, Northern South America, Africa, the Middle East, India, Indonesia and even Hawaii. This region around the equator is often referred to as the coffee growing belt. These regions are considered to be in the Coffee Growing Belt.
The Equatorial climate is ideal for growing coffee. It provides the preferred temperature range of 15-24C, without severe temperature swings. Outside of this range, the plant does not survive or produce very well outside of this range. Lower temperatures inhibit plant growth. Extreme lower temperatures can produce frost that can damage or kill the coffee plant. Temperatures above the preferred range are usually indicative of direct sunlight and in those conditions can lower the rate of photosynthesis.
The type and condition of the soil is important to the growth of the coffee plant. Within the coffee growing belt, the soil is derived from many different sources. Parent material can range from volcanic in Hawaii and Indonesia to sandstone, limestone and gneiss in the other areas. While these soils are of different origins, they are still suitable for the cultivation of coffee.
Field soils must be well drained, well aerated and deep. Coffee plants require a large amount of oxygen for their root systems. Providing oxygen is one reason why soils must be well aerated. Clay soils lack the drainage and aeration and sandy soils may have the drainage and aeration, but they lack the water holding capacity. Coffee also grows best in a soil that is slightly acidic
Rainfall in ideal coffee growing regions is in the range of 1500mm to 2000mm annually. In East and South Africa, coffee is raised with an annual rainfall of about 1000mm, but irrigation has be used to make up for the deficit in moisture. Raising and planting the coffee 
plant starts with collecting the ripe coffee cherry, pulping the seed to remove the outside mucilage. The seed is then either dried and planted or planted without the drying process. The small seedlings are then transferred to the field and planted. Vegetative propagation of coffee plants is also accomplished by rooting green wood into soil so that it will take root. The practice of grafting is also used to propagate some varieties.
Site selection for coffee fields is ultimately dependent on the soil and rainfall conditions, but slope and aspect must also be taken into consideration. Steep slopes may be suitable for growing coffee, but not if tractors or other machinery are going to be used in the care and harvesting of the crop. Considerations must be made for the navigation by equipment and general access to the field. If the coffee is to be tended and harvested by hand, steep slopes and many hills are then not as detrimental to the site selection.
Harvesting Methods:
There are four different methods of harvesting coffee, the first of the four types being the strippi
ng method. This form of harvesting is done by hand, removes all of the cherries, flowers, green cherries, and deeply over ripened cherries. This method produces poor results because of the mixing of the good cherries with the bad ones. However, it is still practiced in some parts of Africa and Brazil.
The second method uses a comb to brush the trees. This method does remove all ripe cherries leaving the unripe cherries and green leaves still connected to the branches of the tree. This is a time-consuming process that could be worth the time invested, if the plantation owner were being paid a premium for the quality that he was producing. However, this process of harvesting would be more profitable because the unripe cherries will eventually become ripe, increasing the future yields.
The third process used for harvesting is mechanical. This process use a vibrator fixed to the trunk of the tree, shaking the ripe cherries loose so they fall to the ground where they can be reached with ease. The other mechanized harvesting tools are rotating brushes connected to the side of tractors. This process damages the tree ripping off the green cherries, flowers, and leaves at the same time.
The last method is the most expensive because it requires hand picking the cherries when they become
ripe. The reason for this expense is that it must be done as many times as necessary until all cherries are picked and in the bins or baskets. This type of coffee harvesting is yields the best quality coffee only seen in premium blends.
Each basket holds an average of 20 to 25 pounds of harvested berries, and are suspended from the shoulder or fastened with a belt around the picker’s waist. The holding hooks are approximately three to four foot-long sticks to which a string or cord is attached. The length of the cord is adjusted to the picker’s height, in relation to the average height of the trees. The sticks are usually about one inch in diameter at the thickest end. A loop of wire tied onto the cord affords a place for the picker’s foot, which can be inserted to hold the hooked branch in place while the picker removes coffee with both hands free. The picker must be carefully instructed not to bend branches to the breaking point. Ladders are needed for picking when cherries are too high off the ground to be reached with the aid of holding hooks alone. It is recommended that pruning practices which will keep the trees low enough to make ladders unnecessary be used, but when this is not possible, a combination of ladder and hook will usually facilitate picking.
Harvest Techniques:
Depending on the region where the coffee is being grown, the coffee beans can be harvested as little as once per year to as much as year round, depending on the plant and the climate. Growing coffee closer to the Equator gives more and more opportunities to harvest.
The coffee berries are ready 8 to 9 months after the plant flowers. The desired berry is shiny, red and firm to the touch. There are both mechanical and manual ways to harvest the berries. When the berries are harvested by hand, only the ripe berries are chosen, leaving the unripe fruit to be picked later.
Mechanical harvesting is faster and more productive. The machines strip all the berries from the branches at once, regardless of ripeness. This not only damages the trees by taking the berries, small branches and leaves, but means that the ripe and unripe berries have to be sorted out at a later date. Mechanical harvesting can also consist of a shaker that shakes the tree causing the ripe berries to fall to the ground and even tractors with rotating brushes are used to take the berries off the tree, this too can damage the plant.
Economic of Raising Coffee:
Economics play a role in any activity where a profit is desired. In the raising of coffee, there are different things that can affect whether costs are going to be higher or lower. As with any crop, the location of the operation has an impact upon many things. In coffee, the major dividing line between locations is whether irrigation is required. In East and South Africa irrigation of the coffee crop is necessary. This creates a large fixed cost that other regions do not have to endure.
The use of machinery increased the cost of running an operation. Besides the maintenance and fuel costs for the machines, the location of the crop must be suitable for machinery operation. Steep slopes and hills make it difficult for tractors to operate. It must be decided whether the cost of the machines produces enough extra revenue to justify the cost.
Another economic aspect of raising coffee is in how much labor is used. In regions where machinery is too expensive or unavailable, more labor is required. This labor is often untrained and underpaid for the work they are performing. The specific type of coffee also can dictate how much labor input is used. Mass production coffee variety such as robusta and liberica do not fetch as high of price as gourmet coffee do. Larger crops and more machinery are used to get the required amount of production at the desired cost.
When gourmet coffee is cultivated, it is often on a smaller scale than the coffee for mass production. Gourmet coffee trees are often fragile and require hand maintenance and harvest to prevent damage. Manual labor also helps ensure a higher quality product is harvested because only the ripe berries are picked.
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