CDS (I) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 22 of 120

Correct — A, Coffee. All three names belong to the genus Coffea, and the three that matter commercially are exactly these. Coffea arabica accounts for roughly 55 per cent of world coffee production and Coffea canephora, universally called Robusta, for about 45 per cent, leaving Coffea liberica as the small third species. The two leaders differ in ways worth knowing: Arabica prefers higher, cooler, shaded slopes, is more susceptible to disease, and is prized for flavour; Robusta tolerates heat and lower elevations, resists leaf rust better, carries roughly twice the caffeine and is the mainstay of instant coffee. India grows both — Karnataka is the leading producer, with Kerala and Tamil Nadu next — and its plantations are known for coffee raised under shade trees. The paper calls them varieties, which is loose in the botanist's sense since these are separate species rather than varieties within one, but the intended meaning is plain.

• (b)Tea — Tea is a different plant altogether, Camellia sinensis, and its two recognised forms are the China type and the Assam type. Tea is graded and named by garden, region and leaf grade — Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri, orange pekoe — never as Arabica or Robusta.
• (c)Sugarcane — Sugarcane belongs to the genus Saccharum, and its cultivars are released by breeding stations under code names such as the Co series from Coimbatore. None of the three names in the stem has anything to do with it.
• (d)Cotton — Cotton is Gossypium, and its four cultivated species are hirsutum, barbadense, arboreum and herbaceum. Trade names such as Sea Island or Egyptian long-staple describe cotton; Arabica and Robusta never do.

Coffee is a plantation crop — grown for the market rather than for the grower, capital-intensive, dependent on a large labour force and on transport to processing and export. In India it is confined almost entirely to the hill tracts of the southern peninsula, where the combination of moderate temperature, well-distributed rain, good drainage on sloping ground and a dry spell at ripening suits the plant. Arabica came to India from Yemen, by tradition through the seeds brought by Baba Budan to the hills of Chikmagalur that now bear his name.

This item is a straightforward matching of names to a crop, and the guard against error is to keep one signature set of names for each commercial crop — Arabica and Robusta for coffee, Assam and China types for tea, hirsutum and arboreum for cotton, the Co series for sugarcane. Coffee's growing requirements are the more commonly examined part of the topic: a warm and moist climate with a spell of dry weather while the berries ripen, rolling land with good drainage, and shade rather than strong direct sun, which is why very high temperatures are a wrong answer whenever they appear in a statements question.

• Arabica, Robusta and Liberica are species of the genus Coffea; Robusta's botanical name is Coffea canephora.
• Arabica supplies roughly 55 per cent of world production and Robusta about 45 per cent, with Liberica a minor third.
• Robusta carries more caffeine and tolerates heat and lower elevations; Arabica is grown higher and is valued for flavour.
• Karnataka is India's leading coffee-producing state, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• Coffee is a plantation crop needing a warm moist climate, a dry spell at ripening, and well-drained sloping land.
• Tea is Camellia sinensis, sugarcane belongs to Saccharum and cotton to Gossypium — none shares these names.

• Attaching Arabica and Robusta to tea, since both are hill plantation crops of the same regions.
• Assuming strong direct sunshine and very high temperatures suit coffee; shade and moderate warmth are what it needs.
• Reading 'varieties' strictly — these are separate species of Coffea, though papers commonly call them varieties.

As a names-to-crop item, or as a statements question on the conditions coffee cultivation requires and the states that lead in it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following statements about Robusta coffee is correct?

  • (a)It is grown only above 2,000 metres and has very low caffeine
  • (b)It tolerates heat and lower elevations and carries more caffeine than Arabica
  • (c)It is a variety of tea grown in the Nilgiris
  • (d)It is the botanical name for the coffee plant as a whole

  Answer(b) it tolerates heat and lower elevations and carries more caffeine than Arabica — its botanical name is Coffea canephora, and it is the mainstay of instant coffee.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The leading coffee-producing state of India is

  • (a)Kerala
  • (b)Tamil Nadu
  • (c)Karnataka
  • (d)Andhra Pradesh

  Answer(c) Karnataka — the hill tracts of Chikmagalur, Kodagu and Hassan account for the bulk of Indian output, with Kerala and Tamil Nadu next.