Coffee production years after planting for a coffee plant to produce coffee beans that are ripe enough to harvest. The plant eventually grows small white blossoms that drop and are replaced by green berries. These green berries will become a deep red color as they ripen. It takes about 9 months for the green cherries to reach their deepest red color. Because this kind of harvest is labor-intensive, and thus more costly, it is used primarily to harvest the finer arabica beans. The laborers who pick coffee by hand receive payment by the basketful. , payment per basket is between US$2.00 to
Shade-grown coffee of mammals occurred in shade-coffee plantations. This study also showed that distance from protected wildlife reserves had a negative influence on mammal species richness. The high species diversity found in shaded polycultures allows for relatively complex food webs to form. Birds and mammals alike play a large role in pest control by eating many herbivorous insects. In a study in Jamaica, birds were excluded from one coffee plantation and resulted in a 70% increase in the proportion of coffee fruits infected by the Coffee Berry Borer, an insect pest species. Biological control by birds acting as predators on the Coffee