Abstract:
Coffee is the major source of foreign currency for Ethiopia and contributes more than 35%of the
total export earnings. This study was conducted in Manna district, Jimma zone of southwest
Ethiopia to assess factors affecting coffee (Coffea arabica) quality from September to November
2024. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select the population for the study which
involved both purposive and random sampling techniques. Data were collected through a
structured questionnaire administered to sample farmers, interviews, and observation. Both
descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the gathered and cleaned data. For the
field survey, 92 household farmers were randomly selected following sample size determination
procedures of probability proportional to size technique and 16 coffee traders were purposively
selected from the four kebeles namely Kela Guda, Haro, Gube Bosoka, and Dawa. The data
were collected and analysed by using frequency and percentage. The study identified different
factors that hinder coffee quality in the area. Among these factors, management factors such as:
old age coffee trees, absence of pruning, improper use of weed control system, Socio-economic
factors such as shortage of cash, theft, poor share arrangement, institutional factors such as lack
of follow-up and support from the concerned body and climatic factors such as: heavy rain
during harvest and sunny weather condition that result in drying coffee tree were identified as
hindrance to coffee quality in the area under investigation. Therefore, the concerned body
should give continuous support and follow-up systems to the coffee farmers during the pre
harvesting, harvesting and post-harvesting period to prevent factors to coffee quality in the study
