TITLE:
Advances in Coffee Germplasm Enhancement and Utilization in Sierra Leone: A Monograph
AUTHORS:
Paul Musa Lahai, Edward Amara, Prince Emmanuel Norman, Abdulai Jalloh, Abdul Rahman Conteh
KEYWORDS:
Trait Profiling, Agronomic and Breeding Constraints, Quantitative Trait Nucleotides, Paternity Determination, White Yam
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.17 No.7,
July
30,
2026
ABSTRACT: Coffee (Coffea spp.) is an economically important cash and beverage crop that boosts many livelihoods in developing countries, including Sierra Leone. The country is making significant strides in the enhancement and utilization of the crop, particularly the native species Coffea stenophylla. However, dearth of well-articulated knowledge exists on the genetic improvement and utilization of the crop for desired end-user traits. This monograph presents the progress made in the genetic improvement, trait profiling, discovery of quantitative trait loci and candidate genes linked to desired traits of interests. Advances in breeding technologies and methodologies, as well as the availability of high-quality historical trial data, continue to drive improvements in coffee genotypes for desired end-user traits. Information from this review could be useful in designing future marker-based breeding and genetic conservation of coffee. The exploitation of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) for improvement of coffee tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, priming strategies, combined utilization of high-throughput genotyping and high-throughput digital phenotyping, and assessment of long-term effects of plant domestication, pleiotropy and selective breeding for desired agronomic traits of coffee forms part of future work on the crop.