slopes and limited soil depth, and they are subject to erosion if not properly managed. In many coffee producing areas, transport and communication are constrained by the rough terrain. Access to most villages is provided by secondary roads, and farms scattered through the area are linked to villages by mule paths. The hilly areas where coffee is grown are subject to erosion. Dense coffee plantings on the contours under shade trees, and coffee inter-planted with trees provide good protection against soil erosion.

The Dominican Republic has the natural conditions to produce high-altitude, good quality coffee.<sup>29</sup> Coffee production areas can be broken down into three general zones: (a) optimal areas – excellent soil, proper temperature, high elevation (800-1300 meters) and high rainfall, (b) goodadequate areas – good soil, moderate temperature, medium elevation (600-800 meters), adequate rain, and (c) marginal areas – poor soil, high temperature, low elevation (< 500 meters above sea level in the north, <600 meters in the south), inadequate rain. About 25% of the coffee land is found in optimal areas, about 60% in the good-adequate areas and only about 15% in marginal areas. More details on farm sizes, areas planted with coffee and elevation are presented below.

The Dominican Republic grows almost entirely Arabica coffee (classified in international markets as “milds”) with small amounts of Robusta for internal consumption (only 3.3% of total producers and 1.3% of land area are involved in robusta). See table III.4. There are two main varieties of Dominican Arabica coffee: _tipica_ and _caturra_ . _Tipica_ is a traditional, older variety higher quality coffee, with relatively lower yields. _Tipica_ grows on tall, spindly trees (about 3m in height) that are susceptible to hurricane damage. _Caturra_ is a newer variety that produces harvests earlier with higher yields, but has smaller beans and lower quality coffee. _Caturra_ is smaller and bushier than _tipica_ and less susceptible to hurricanes. _Caturra_ can be grown in pure stands without shade, enabling easier applications of agri-chemicals. Over the last 20 years, farmers were encouraged by government and coffee-related NGOs to shift from _tipica_ to _caturra._ This shift was a major focus of the World Bank’s Cocoa and Coffee Project. C _atuai_ is another improved coffee variety that has more recently been introduced (it is a cross between _Caturra_ and _Borboun_ ).

As of 2000, about 75% of coffee producers had only _tipica_ trees and about 64% of land area was under _tipica_ (table III.4). Only about 5% of coffee producers and 8% of the land area are devoted to pure stands of _caturra_ and mixed _tipica_ and _caturra_ account for 16% of producers and 27% of land area. The production of _Caturra_ coffee is related to farm size; the CRMG survey shows that about 25 % of the smallest producing units (< 5 hectares) produced _caturra_ varieties, compared to 38 % of medium-sized (5-10 hectares) and 44 % of producers with more than 10 hectares.

Over the past 20 years, several trends in Dominican coffee production have emerged: (a) increased _caturra_ production, (b) increased inter planting of _caturra_ and _tipica_ varieties, (c) increased concentration of coffee at higher elevations with a corresponding reduction in lowelevation farms, and d) diversification of coffee plantations to include other fruit trees and alternative shade trees. The implication of increased _caturra_ production is higher yield but lower coffee quality (especially if trees are not well-attended to). As a part of recent efforts to improve quality, the government has begun to encourage producers to switch back to _tipica_ .<sup>30</sup> _Caturra_ varieties were also found to be susceptible to leaf rust, a fungus that appeared in Dominican Republic in the late 1980s (World Bank, 1991).

> 29 Coffee is not typically grown above 1400 meters because of low temperatures.  For the _tipica_ variety of coffee (see below) this upper ceiling for production is only about 1100 meters.

> 30 SOFRECO (2001), p.9.  In fact, many of the efforts to rehabilitate following Hurricane Georges involved planting of _tipica_ varieties.

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