Knowledge and Attitude of Small holder Coffee Producing Farmers to Coffee Quality The Case of Oromiya and South Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional States, Ethiopia

Abstract

In time bound when nobody was sure how Coffee arabica is originally discovered,farmers in Ethiopia have been growing quality coffee in the untamed forests ofKaffa and Buno areas. As a result, coffee is an important source of genetic resourcefor the world where Ethiopia stands as the Africa’s leading producer and domesticconsumer and the World’s fifth largest producer of coffee. Despite its earliestestablishment, a series of complaints are reported from this origin of coffee legendwhich even resulted in to rejection of export consignments. Correspondingly, thereis no comprehensive study conducted to identify the contribution of smallholderfarmers’ knowledge on coffee quality. To this effect, eighteen variables wereassessed by the survey and the result signified ten variables were found significantat (P<0.10) probability level. Form these variables, market distance, distance towashing stations, frequency of training and actors’ efforts to improve quality wereimportant to influence coffee quality. Similarly of the 12 items selected items forcomparison in attitude scale, primary actors involved in quality improvement,awareness of quality trend, skill and knowledge of farmers were important itemsthat affected coffee quality. The finding has also indicated farmers had virtually lowinformation regarding quality beans they produced and their social, institutional,economical and psychological factors differ across the study areas and amongrespondents. These necessitated strengthening linkages among institutions so as topopularize the already available technologies