Impacts of Adoption of Improved Coffee Varieties on Farmers’ Coffee Yield and Income in Jimma Zone

Abstract

This study was conducted in four districts of Jimma zone namely Gera, Manna, Limu Kosa and Gomma to estimate the relative benefits of use of improved coffee varieties on adopters’ livelihood (income) and yield. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select the population for the study which involved both purposive and random sampling techniques. Data was collected through structured questionnaire administered to sampled farmers. Both descriptive and inferential statistics, and econometric models were used to analyze the gathered and cleaned data. The impact of adoption of the improved coffee varieties on yield and income was estimated using propensity score matching (PSM) technique. The result of the survey revealed that the mean adoption rate of improved coffee cultivars was 53.56%. The mean overall clean coffee yield per hectare was 769kg/ha which is higher than the national average estimated by CSA (710kg/ha) by 8.3%. On other hands, the mean clean coffee yield per hectare of land for adopters is significantly higher (861 kg) than their non-adopters counter parts (646kg). To extract the net increment due to use of improved coffee varieties, PSM was run. Accordingly, from the total increment the use of improved coffee varieties increased clean coffee yield per hectare by 25.3-28.8% over the non-adopters. Concomitantly, the use of improved coffee varieties increased coffee income by 33.6-46.6 % and total income by 25.8-44.1% over non-adopters using different matching algorithms. Government and non-government organizations need to emphasize on diffusion of improved coffee technologies to their maximum capacity. This would increase their productivity per unit of land which in turn raise farmers’ income and livelihood.