Cenicafé, the world’s most important Coffee Research Center
The world of coffee is at the forefront of technology. Now coffee growers have an application that feeds their cellular phones with updated and real-time information on how to manage the main coffee pests and diseases in Colombia. This is one example of the technological advances achieved thanks to Cenicafé, Colombia’s and the world’s most important National Coffee Research Center.
This institution is part of the great family of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC). Since its creation it has led technological advances in coffee, research and appropriate, competitive and sustainable knowledge to improve coffee production and thus contribute to Colombian coffee growers’ well-being.
The Cenicafé team is made up of professionals with doctorates (PhD’s) and master’s degrees (MSc’s) in different scientific disciplines. Under the guidance of Cenicafé researchers, students from different Colombian universities work on their professional thesis, and special projects are executed with the participation of researchers from other institutions.
Cenicafé History
In 1938, the FNC created the National Coffee Research Center, Cenicafé, to study aspects related to production on farms, harvest, post-harvesting, coffee quality, management and use of by-products, and conservation of natural resources in Colombia’s coffee regions.
Cenicafé has eight experimental stations distributed along the three mountain ranges: Naranjal, located in Chinchiná (Caldas); Pueblo Bello, in Pueblo Bello (Cesar); San Antonio, in Floridablanca (Santander); El Rosario, in Venecia (Antioquia); Paraguaicito, in Buenavista (Quindío); La Catalina, in Pereira (Risaralda); La Trinidad, in Líbano (Tolima), and El Tambo, in El Tambo (Cauca), which measure environmental conditions that are representative of the country’s coffee farms.
Since its creation, Cenicafé has received the support of coffee farmers and its challenge has been the development of appropriate technologies for coffee production in Colombia in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability.
Knowledge adds value to coffee
Cenicafé is a global benchmark because of the support it provides to coffee-growing families through scientific research, in accordance with the guidelines of the FNC’s strategic plan.
Cenicafé has also spread its work in production of seeds of rust-resistant varieties of coffee, development of technologies for assisted coffee harvesting, coffee post-harvesting with low water consumption for small producers, wastewater chemical treatment, green filters and wastewater reuse pits, among other advances.
Among its publications, very valuable to the coffee industry, are the Coffee Agro-meteorological Bulletin, Technical Advances, annual reports, and the Cenicafé magazine, which disseminates the results of its research work to the international scientific community, as well as handbooks and manuals for coffee growers, among others.
Café de Colombia, by having an institution as valuable as Cenicafé, supports coffee farming and guarantees excellent quality and sustainability of the coffee exported to different countries.
If you want to learn more about Cenicafé, visit www.cenicafe.org
