Coffee Rust Fungus of the Coffea Genus

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Introduction

The coffee bean is one of the world’s most widely utilized commodities touching almost every continent. In the book Coffee Rust: Epidemiology, resistance, and management Ajjamada Kushalappa asserts, “After petroleum coffee is the most important product in international world trade” (Kushalappa, Eskes 1989) Given this fact, it can be safe to assume the growing of this crop plays a large role in many countries economic stability. Coffee rust is a disease of the Coffee tree which has proven it has the ability to decimate a farmer’s crop in a short period of time. Coffee rust is caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix. This disease has been established as one of the most catastrophic plant diseases of human history, along with others such as blight of potato and black stem rust of wheat. (Kushalappa, Eskes 1989)

The Coffee Rust disease is often considered a classic plant disease because it has been studied for such a long time, “Probably the first report of rust was that of a British Explorer in 1861, in the region of Lake Victoria of Kenya in east Africa” (Kushalappa, Eskes 1989). At this time knowledge of the fungi’s biology was extremely limited so really effective control measures could not be established. Because the coffee bean became such a widely distributed product and its popularity caught on quickly, it is easy to imagine how quickly the disease spread through trade. Small outbreaks of the disease occurred throughout the late 1800s, but by 1986 widespread presence of the disease was being reported” (Kushalappa, Eskes 1989). A great majority of the worldwide coffee production is located in Brazil, and Kushalappa states that the Coffee Rust Fungi was reported as present in 1970. (1989). Through human interv...

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