INTA and CATIE Strengthen Cooperation in Research on Cocoa and Coffee in Costa Rica

• Meeting defined joint actions in agricultural innovation that will benefit science and farming families.

A meeting between the National Institute of Innovation and Transfer of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and CATIE’s (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) Agroforestry and Coffee and Cocoa Genetic Improvement Unit strengthened ties and explored new opportunities for cooperation in research and innovation.

Among the results, collaboration was reinforced for the establishment of multilocational cocoa trials in five regions of the country, in which 25 promising new clones will be tested. Two of these trials will take place at INTA’s experimental stations (Los Diamantes and La Managua).

Other actions defined include the validation of somatic embryogenesis methodology and cost-effective mass propagation techniques, applicable to both old and promising cocoa clones. 

In addition, the possibility of establishing agroforestry coffee trials with improved hybrids will be explored at CATIE, in Turrialba, as well as on INTA farms.

The agreement also includes technology transfer to INTA, so that this institution can also contribute to research on the production of hybrid coffee plants for Costa Rica’s coffee sector. 

Finally, phenotypic evaluation is being proposed to assess the response of promising coffee varieties and accessions to diseases, for subsequent molecular analysis and the search for resistance genes, in collaboration with Cornell University, New York.

Through these actions, INTA and CATIE are giving operationality to their framework cooperation agreements, aiming to generate concrete contributions both for the technical and scientific community and for cocoa and coffee farming families, who will benefit from new technological and innovative options.