Yaounde, Cameroon Africa(Cameroon News) – Cameroon Coffee farmers are cultivating around 1 Million high yielding Java seedlings.

Cameroon coffee growers have cultivated about 1 million high-yielding java plants in the last four years, the group that provided the seedlings indicated.

The species is being cultivated on more than 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres), Christopher Mbah, general manager of the North West Cooperative Association Ltd., stated today by phone from Bamenda, the group’s headquarters, about 400 kilometers (248 miles) northwest of the capital, Yaounde. The group, that is centered in the country’s major Arabica cultivating area, constituting of more than 35,000 farmers.

The plants are taken care of with minimal employment of fertilizers and is estimated to produce a minimum of 1.5 metric tons of beans a hectare, in comparison with more conventional species that produced 250 kilograms (551 pounds) a hectare, as per to Francis Fang, the cooperative’s president, in a July 23 interview in Bamenda. The association provided the seedlings to the farmers free of cost.

The North West region yields about 75 percent of the west-central African nation’s produce of the arabica variety, Mbah said. Total production of arabica rose 17 percent to 3,500 tons in 2010, Michael Ndoping, general manager of the Cocoa and Coffee Board, indicated Feb. 21. Output of robusta beans increased by 20 percent to 53,000 tons.

Arabica coffee is yielded primarily in Latin America and used mostly for specialty beverages such as those made by Starbucks Corp. Robusta, generally found in instant coffee and espresso, is cultivated mostly in Asia and parts of Africa.