Assessment on Factors Affecting Coffee Quality in Mana District, Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia

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