Good Agronomic Practices and Pest Management Strategies for Enhanced Coffee Arabica Production: Reviews and Recommendations

Coffee is world’s second most traded product after oil. However, its cultivation is limited to the tropics and subtropics. Among the varieties of coffee cultivated, the C. arabica covers about 75% of world coffee trade and consumption. However, C. arabica production is constrained by the weather specific preferences (limited to areas of high altitude), pests and diseases, inadequate distribution of rainfall, species mix-up, weed competition, and inadequate soil fertility. Lack of consideration of the above named constrains has drastically reduced the yield potential of coffees grown in Nigeria and the international market acceptability thereby reducing export earnings for the farmers. To fully exploit the productivity of coffee, the farmers in Nigeria need to adopt the following recommendations to ameliorate the above constraints. This review thus highlights the several agronomic lapses hindering C. arabica coffee production in Nigeria and the possible control measures such as irrigation system, integrated pests, diseases, nutrient and weed management, regular pruning to maintain productive tree parts, and the need for governments intervention in coffee farming with the establishment of coffee management board will enhance coffee productivity and become forex earning crop.