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USAID is launching a $5 million partnership with Texas A&M University's World Coffee Research in an attempt to eradicate a fungus that is threatening coffee plants in Latin America and the Caribbean. USAID says the fungus could threaten the livelihoods of about 500,000 people whose jobs depend on the coffee industry.
The so-called leaf rust is threatening to stunt production and drive up the price of Latin American roasts. Central America's arabica coffee plants have been especially hard hit. The region produces high-quality beans used in espressos and gourmet specialty blends. It is estimated that production will fall by as much as 15-40 percent in the coming years due to the spread of the fungus.
Reuters reports that mass job losses could in turn leave displaced coffee workers more susceptible to the illegal drug trade and associated violence in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The orange-colored fungus is called roya, which thrives on the leaves of coffee trees. Afflicted trees produce fewer cherries, and harvested beans are sapped of flavors that are attractive to gourmet roasters.
If the fungus destroys more than half of a tree's leaves, it most likely will have to be cut off at the stump. Such trees then can't produce coffee beans for three years.
According to the American Phytopathological Society, the "coffee leaf disease" was first reported by an English explorer on wild Coffea species in the Lake Victoria region of East Africa in 1861. The fungus was given the name Hemileia vastatrix. It produces half-smooth kidney-shaped spores called urediniospores.
The first observable symptoms of a fungus infection are small, pale yellow spots on the upper surfaces of the leaves, according to the APS. As these spots gradually increase in diameter, masses of orange urediniospores appear on the undersides of the leaves. The powdery lesions on the undersides of the leaves can be orange-yellow to red-orange in color. New spores develop from the lesions and are transferred to other plants, usually by wind and rain.
The APS states that while the lesions can develop anywhere on the leaf, they tend to be concentrated around the margins, where dew and rain droplets collect. The centers of the spots eventually dry and turn brown, while the margins of the lesions continue to expand and produce urediniospores. Early in the season, the first lesions usually appear on the lowermost leaves, and the infection slowly progresses upward in the tree.
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