Challenges and Opportunities of the Ethiopian Coffee Sector

Ch completelyenges and Opportunities of the Ethiopian chocolate SectorCoffee farmers all everywhere the world face diffe permit challenges related to the availability, cost and tincture of constancy, earth, water, inputs, door to reasonable return credit, and proper technical advice in response to diseases and pests. Ethiopia has a reputation of high woodland deep brown due to its branded varieties of java tree berry. But, just ab knocked out(p) of the burnt umber farmers in Ethiopia atomic number 18 not capable of getting the turn a profits attached with production and marketing of a finest quality product. There is production, processing, storage and surgical office of domestic and inter study market related constraints for this fact (ODI, 2009).Regardless of wide potential for collective production of drinking chocolate in Ethiopia, the average cave in per hect ar remains very low at 0.72 metric ton per hectare. Abu and Tedy (2013) revealed cardinal study f actors for the basis of low coffee production. First, there is a unionize and increasing competition of cat-o- gild-tails (Cata edulis), a plant with mild narcotizing assembles, with coffee for farmlands in different areas of the country particularly in the Hararge region. Khat is chosen by many farmers because it is more than profitable and brings a legitimate income during the course of study. Second, the farm management system of coffee and the agronomic practices in Ethiopia are traditional. In addition to this, coffee producing farmers do not get fair to middling extension service. Lastly, there is no specialized institution that offers extension bear out for production of coffee in the country. harmonise to Taye (2010), in Ethiopia, there are some(prenominal) attributed factors for the low level of average production and income of coffee by the world standard. These intromits insufficient credit and distribution of input devices for coffee developing farmers, princ ipal use of conservative husban teetotal and processing as soundly as unimproved local coffee landrace practices, which in turn super hinders the national production and productivity of coffee produced by bantam-scale farmers in the country.Harvesting, post-harvest storage and processing is important in order to assure the quality of coffee. Non-selective picking practice is common by smallholder farms which contributes to unworthy quality coffee regardless of whether it is wet or dry processed. In addition, sorting and range of coffee berries before further processing is a practice that is ample forgotten among most smallholders because of low net earnings, high cost of labor and lack of incentives for high quality coffees. Most of the coffee growing farmers in Ethiopia incur traditional and temporary storages which piddle its own negative effect to maximize the quality of coffee, with implications for determine, profit and income (ODI, 2009).The conventional coffee value concatenation in Ethiopia involves a large number of intermediaries and is largely maintain-controlled. Licenses are ask for every function in the market chain (Petit, 2007).The Ethiopian politics issuing licenses for direct export has changed recently. The contourer system was exposed to rent seeking and political control and did not offer an inducement for quality. Coffee deliveries for export markets have adversely been affected by lack of price incentives to farmers, fluctuation of production supply due to climatic variations and unstable prices (ECX, 2009).According to the Ministry of Agriculture (2013), the Ethiopian coffee welkin faces persistent challenges. The major geniuss include very low quality control, the deficiency of a unfaltering coffee seed supply system, inadequate consideration to the input credit training for efficiency and quality enhancement, and lack of strong vision and path in order to support the coffee sector. Limited use of enhanced applied sc ience land degradation and creation pressure limited access to inputs such as fertilizer, seeds, credit and irrigation and high costs of quality coffee production and processing are also mentioned as the major challenges of the coffee sector of the country (Taye, 2013).According to Jim and Ruth (2012), the challenges to the coffee sector in Ethiopia looked devastating. They pointed out the constraints as low and inconsistent coffee quality due to poor processing regulation of export sales through a national auction that mixed coffees from different places into a single portion and command cupping earlier to sales coffee cooperatives were technically and institutionally imperfect loan capitals for production, processing and marketing investments in were absent and lack of internationalistic market demand understanding leads to focus on quantity preferably than quality.Despite the challenges, there are several opportunities of the coffee sector in Ethiopia. The country has ferti le soil, optimum temperatures, sufficient rain and suitable elevated railway for coffee production. It has diverse agro-ecology and climatic conditions, genetic biodiversity and sole distinctive characters of quality coffee. Fine specialty coffee can be produced and supplied sustainably, with producing potentially all the various types of coffee in world coffee cultivating origins. Ethiopia has an ordinary benefit in organic coffee markets as over 90% of coffee production is de facto organic (Mekuria et al. 2004).Moreover, Ethiopia is the moreover producer of natural forest coffee Arabica, providing scope for shade-grown coffees sale, for instance, through the certification of Rainforest Alliance. The governments decision to allow cooperatives to directly export is significant because it opened a potentially new channel of value chain for export of coffee (USAID, 2010). positive image of the country as origin of coffee and a strong indigenous coffee culture, well established cof fee brand, prospective for refinement of volume and quality coffee due to existence of adequate land and low-cost labour, high commitment of government and favourable policy environs are among the major opportunities of the coffee sector in Ethiopia (Ministry of Trade, 2013).CHAPTER THREEMATERIALS AND METHODSThis chapter presents a brief profile of Ethiopia, describes the study area, the type of data collected, sampling procedure followed and analytical methods use to analyze the data.3.1. A Brief Profile of EthiopiaEthiopia is among the countries that have a history of early civilization.It is the only African country neer been colonized. It was previously known as Abyssinia. It is geographically located in the schnoz of Africa, 3 and 14.8 latitude and 33 and 48 longitude. The country is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Kenya to the south, South Sudan and Sudan to the west and Djibouti and Somalia to the east. It is the second most populous country in Africa with over 91,195,6 75 (2012 est.) inhabitants. It covers an area of 1,104,300km2. Addis Ababa is the capital city, also known as the political capital of Africa.Ethiopia is a mountainous and landlocked country. It is situated at an altitude that ranges from 4620 one thousands above sea level at Ras Dashen in the Northern part of Ethiopia to 155 meters below sea level in the North east where the great Danakil depression is situated. The climate condition is stifling in the lowlands and temperate in the highlands. Temperature ranges from 10oc to 30oc while rainfall ranges from 200mm to 2000 mm per year. Ethiopia is essentially stated as the water tower of Eastern Africa for the reason that several (14 major) rivers that discharge off the high plateau, including Blue Nile river. The country has the highest water reserves in Africa, but it is not utilized through irrigation systems. It is only 1.5% used for irrigation and 1% for power production.Ethiopia is a multilingual and multi ethnic country in wh ich around 86 ethnic groups are found. The majority of the commonwealth is Christian while a third of it is Muslim. The official language of Ethiopia is Amharic, even if English, Italian, French and Arabic are fairly spoken. Ethiopia uses a slightly modified form of the Julian calendar, which consists 12 equal months of 30 days each and a thirteenth month of five days (six days in a leap year). The Ethiopian calendar is eight geezerhood late with the Gregorian (Western) calendar from September 11 to December 31 and seven years in the rest of the year.Ethiopia is an independent republic functioning under the federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) constitution. The President is head of state whereas the Prime minister of religion is the head of government. The country is divided into nine autonomous regional states and 2 special city administrations. The two cities administrations as well as the nine national regional states are further divided into 800 Woredas/districts and around 15,000 Kebeles (5,000 urban and 10,000 Rural).Agriculture is the foundation of Ethiopias frugality, responsible for 45.6% of GDP, 80% of employment, 80% of exports and 52% of exports for foreign exchange. Industry and services cover 13.4% and 41% of GDP respectively. Coffee, pulses, oil-seeds, hides and skins, khat, discount flowers, gold, meat, live animals and textile garments are major export items of the country. Rural Ethiopia contains slightly 84% of the countrys population.Banking, insurance and micro-credit industries in Ethiopia are set to domestic investors however the country has attracted substantial foreign investment in leather, textiles, manufacturing and commercial husbandry. All the land is owned by the state which is state in the constitution. The government allows long-term leases to the tenants and distributes the land use certificates which help the tenants to have more recognizable rights to persistent possession and hence make more rigorous ef forts to expand their leaseholds.According to the IMF report (2012), the growth of Ethiopian economy was one of the fastest in the world. The country registered over 10% stinting growth for six years between 2004 and 2009.It was a non-oil-dependent economy in Africa with the fastest-growing rate in the years 2007 and 2008. However, thegrowth has slowed temperately to 7%in the year 2012 and is projected to be 6.5% in the near future.The country faces high fanfare challenge and balance of payment difficulties. Inflation is projected to be at closely 22 part for the year 2011/12. The economy still faces a number of serious structural problems. The per capita income of the country is one of the lowest globally even if the GDP growth has remained high. There is low productivity of agriculture and frequent droughts which strictly affected the country.3.2. Description of the Study Area Mana dominion of Jimma ZoneThis study was conducted in Manna district of the Jimma administrative ge ographical zone in the Oromia Regional asseverate of Ethiopia. The area was selected on the grounds that these villages would provide a picture of the range of production and employment options available to households in a coffee producing area, with reasonably good links to the wider economy. They also necessary to be accessible during the rainy conciliate when the study was carried out.Oromia Regional State has 12 administrative zones and 180 woredas. It is the largest Regional State in Ethiopia in terms of population and area. It covers an area of 367,000 km2 (about 30% of the total area of the country) and a population of more than 26 million inhabitants (35%). From the total population, 88 percent lives in rural areas where the average household size is 5 persons and 35 percent lives below the absolute poverty line (CSA, 2008).Agriculture is the back of the economy of Oromia region. It is considered as fragmented and subsistence farming. The majority of the farmers depend o n coffee. Farmers producing Arabica coffee in Oromia region are 424,309 and 95 percent of the production is through by small-scale farmers. From the total amount of marketed coffee that is produced in the region, 85 percent is sun dried or unwashed (IPMS, 2007).Jimma zone is one of the 12 administrative zones in Oromia Regional State. It is located in the southwesterly part of Ethiopia between 7 13 and 8 56 N latitude, and 35 52 and 37 37 E longitude. It has an area of slightly 19,300 Km. Jimma town which is 335 Km southwest of Addis Ababa, is the capital and administrative decoct of the zone. Its population is around 2.4 million, of which approximately 5% lives in Jimma town. Crude population density is 106 persons per km2. There are approximately 644kms of all-weather roads and 447km of dry weather roads in the zone (CSA, 2008).The Altitude of Jimma zone varies from 880 to 3,340 meter above sea level. The topography includes dissected plateaus, mountains, plains, hills, gorges and valleys. There are many sporadic streams and perennial rivers. The zone is characterized by its humid tropical climate with wakeless annual rainfall ranging from 1200 to 2400 mm per year, with a long rainy season from February/March to October/November. The temperature ranges from 25 to 30C with a minimum temperature of 7C. The agro-climatic divisions of the area are classified as Kolla (14.9% lowlands), Woinadega (64.4% mid highlands) and Dega (20.5% highlands). High forest, shrubs, woodland and man-made forests are found in the zone. Out of the 13 Woredas of the zone, only 7 focus on coffee production. Manna, Gomma, Limmu Seka and Limmu Chekrosa woredas are well-known as mainly coffee growing areas (Jimma Zone Agriculture, 2010).Manna Woreda is one of the 13 woredas of Jimma zone known for its pre sovereign coffee cultivation. It is located between 746.5 and 751.5 in North while 3640 and 3642 in East and found in central part of the zone. The woreda is located at 35 km w est of Jimma town and about 6 km from Yebu town which is the woreda capital. The total area of the woreda is 480 km2 (48,000 ha) of which 12% is highland, 65% intermediate highland and 23% lowland. It lies between 1,470 and 2,610m altitude. It has an average annual rainfall of 1500 mm with mean average temperature of 19oc (ARDO, 2008). It occupies loamy soils with production of coffee, cereals and vegetables. Coffee accounts for 80% of the production. Distric Nitosols and Orthic Acrisols are the dominant soil types with slightly acidic PH, which is suitable for coffee production found in the woreda (ORG, 2003).Manna Woreda (district) is most densely dwell district in Jimma zone with 308 persons per Km. The total population of the woreda is estimated at 146,675 inhabitants (CSA, 2008). 89% of the district area is arable (with 86% under cultivation), 2.7% is skim and 2.8% forest lands. The major cash crop commodities which are cultivated in the district include coffee, chat (Catha e dulis), tropical and sub-tropical fruits (mango, avocado, papaya, banana, orange, pineapple) and spices (mainly ginger and Ethiopian cardamom). Among cereals, maize, teff, wheat, barleycorn and sorghum are grown in the area amongst of which, maize is the dominant cereal crop in the farming system. Livestock commodities include cattle, small ruminants (sheep and goat), apiculture, poultry and equines. Lady bird beetle, Stalk borer, ape, pig, warthog, and porcupine are major crop pests. Compared with other woredas in Jimma zone, Manna has a high population density, smaller size and relatively better access to infrastructure and services (IPMS, 2007).