This study analyzed the relation between coffee yield and defoliation during the process of manual harvest in the agricultural harvests of 2005, 2006 and 2007. The experiment was conducted at the Cafua farm, located in the municipality of Ijaci, Minas Gerais, in an area of 6.5 ha of coffee crop (Coffea arabica L.) Catuaí Vermelho IAC-99 cultivar. An irregular grid was demarcated in the area with a distance of 25x25 and 50x50m, totaling 67 sampling points, which were evaluated coffee production (L plant-1) obtained through harvest in cloth as well as defoliation of plants, quantified by the weight of leaves (A) (kg plant-1) after manual harvest. Pearson correlation analysis was used to verify the linear relationship between productivity and defoliation in different evaluated periods. The spatial dependence of the data was already analyzed through semivariogram adjustments and Kriging interpolation. Based on the analyses, it was found that manual harvest caused more defoliation in places with higher productivity and reduced the yield in the subsequent year, by the increase of defoliation on plants and reduction of the photosynthetically active radiation intercepted by the canopy of these plants, leading to the biannuality of the production.
Precision agriculture; defoliation; production; Coffea arabica
