Nutrition of Shade-Grown Coffee Plantations with Inorganic Fertilizers in Oaxaca, Mexico

Coffee is a very important world commodity because of the countries involved in its production, along with the total cultivated area, production volume, consumption and economic impact. In Mexico, the coffee producing area locates mainly in hilly terrain of southern Mexico under agroforestry systems predominantly owned by smallholders. Low productivity is faced specially in the state of Oaxaca as a result of inadequate management practices such as aged plantations and deficient practices on pruning and plant nutrition. In order to evaluate the effect of N-P-K inorganic fertilizer application an experiment was carried out at three plantations located in the coastal coffee producing region of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Three levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium were evaluated using a randomized complete block design with four replications. The experiments initiated on plantations with three and four years since planted with the objective of having at least one harvest for yield evaluation. The results showed that Nitrogen application increased coffee yield on both varieties of Arabica coffee: Typica and Oro Azteca.