Climate and natural quality of Coffea arabica L. drink

• Published in: Theoretical and applied climatology Vol. 141; no. 1-2; pp. 87 - 98
• Main Authors: de Souza Rolim, Glauco, de Oliveira Aparecido, Lucas Eduardo, de Souza, Paulo Sérgio, Lamparelli, Rubens Augusto Camargo, dos Santos, Éder Ribeiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01-07-2020; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air temperature; Analysis; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric precipitations; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Beans; Climate; Climate science; Climatic conditions; Climatology; Coffee; Coffee production; Crops; Drying; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environmental conditions; Evapotranspiration; Original Paper; Precipitation; Rain; Rain and rainfall; Rainfall; Regions; Waste Water Technology; Water deficit; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water storage; Weather; Crop modeling; Coffee quality; Agro-meteorology; Correlation; Forecast
• ISSN: 0177-798X; 1434-4483
• DOI: 10.1007/s00704-020-03117-3

The natural quality (NQ) of a coffee drink is defined as the one that is obtained in the year of bean production with the standard postharvest treatments of the region. The NQ varies with the climatic conditions during the crop cycle and with the drying period of beans in the sun. A well-formed bean can provide a good drink if well processed, but a bean grown during unfavourable environmental conditions will have poor quality regardless of the postharvest options. The goals of this study were to (1) increase our understanding of the relationship between meteorological elements (MEs) and NQ in coffee-producing regions, (2) identify the ranges of the MEs during the crop cycle that optimise quality, and (3) develop models to predict NQ based on the MEs. We used the two major regions of coffee production in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the Cerrado Mineiro (CE
MG
), and the southern Minas Gerais (SO
MG
). We mapped the influences of ME on NQ successfully. Air temperature in November and December for SO
MG
and precipitation from November to January for CE
MG
were generally the most important MEs for NQ. Water deficiency, water storage, and rainfall became increasingly more important during winter (June to September) than during other seasons. The crop models were accurate, with errors < 7.9% for predicting NQ for all regions. These models used precipitation in June and December, the actual evapotranspiration in May, and the water deficit in April as the MEs for CE
MG
, and the rainfall in June and December, the water storage in April, and the actual evapotranspiration in May as the MEs for SO
MG
.