Divisi
Coffee wilt disease
Fusarium xylarioides · Fungal
Photo: The Mediae Company · CC BY-SA 4.0
Coffee wilt disease (CWD), also called tracheomycosis (a disease of the water-carrying tubes), is a fungal disease that blocks the pipes inside the coffee tree that carry water up from the roots. The fungus (Fusarium xylarioides) lives in the soil and in dead coffee wood; it gets in through wounds on the roots or stem, grows up inside the wood, and chokes off the tree's water supply so the whole bush wilts and dies. It attacks both Arabica and Robusta, has caused major epidemics across East and Central Africa, and once it is inside a tree there is no cure — all the work is in stopping it spreading.
Why it matters
Coffee wilt disease does not just cut your harvest — it kills the whole bush, and a coffee tree takes three to four years of care before it even begins to pay you back. Once the fungus is inside the wood there is no spray and no cure: the tree will wilt, drop its leaves and die, and a bad outbreak can take every tree in the block (up to 100%). Worse, it spreads quietly from bush to bush on your pruning knife, on soil stuck to your tools and boots, and through roots touching underground — so one sick tree you ignore becomes a dead patch, then a lost field. Everything you do is about catching it early and stopping the spread, because you can never rescue a tree that is already infected.
When to act
Any bush showing progressive one-sided wilting and leaf yellowing that does not recover; treat as a sanitation emergency.
This guidance is general, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. Thresholds and timing shift with your crop, your variety and the season.
In much of the region a spray is simply called mushonga — medicine. But a chemical group you cannot name is one you cannot rotate, and a product you did not write down has no pre-harvest interval you can observe. Mushonga, and other farming words →
The full coffee wilt disease field guide
- Identify it
- Scout for it
- Control it
13 field-guide sections in the app
The full guide to coffee wilt disease — every symptom to check, how and when to walk your field looking for it, and the controls that actually work, ranked. Built into your crop plan, so you are told to look before it costs you a harvest.
Crops it affects
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify coffee wilt disease?
The first sign: one branch, or one whole side of the bush, suddenly wilts and turns yellow while the rest still looks green. The leaves lose their shine, curl inward, droop and hang down — and unlike a thirsty tree, they do not perk up after rain or watering.
When should I take action against coffee wilt disease?
Any bush showing progressive one-sided wilting and leaf yellowing that does not recover; treat as a sanitation emergency.
How do I control coffee wilt disease?
Prevent — start clean and grow resistant: plant only certified, disease-free seedlings from a trusted nursery (certified means guaranteed clean of the disease), and wherever your national coffee programme supplies resistant or tolerant varieties, choose those — a resistant tree is your strongest and cheapest long-term protection, because there is no cure once a tree is sick.
Which crops does coffee wilt disease affect?
Among the crops covered here: Robusta coffee.
Catch it before it costs you a harvest
Divisi builds scouting into your crop plan — it tells you when to walk your field, what to look for at that stage, and what to do when you find it. Free for farmers, works offline.
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