Soil fertility and production system are considered two determining factors of crops response to nutrients supply. In order to calibrate the results of the soils analysis for coffee, the effect of fertilization with N, P, K and Mg was determined in 32 technified plantations: 20 in sunlight exposure and 12 under semishade, located in 25 municipalities of Colombia. One control with all four elements was evaluated and four treatments were defined based on the criteria of the missing element. The linear-discontinuous model was used to determine the critical level and the linear-plateau model was used to determine the sufficiency level. Coffee production was higher in the sunlight exposure than in the semishade; this behaviour was related to the effect of shade and plant density. Critical and sufficiency levels showed some variations through time and, in general, they were similar for both systems. N was the most limiting nutrient for production, and its effect on yielding was explained by the soil organic matter content through a quadratic equation with a mean inflection point of 18%. The P, K and Mg critical levels showed the following ranges: 11-21 mg.kg-1, 0.2-0.3 cmol (+) .kg-1, and 0.20-0.5