Abstract

Coffee is one of the commercial crops grown in many countries including Ethiopia. It contributes for 60% of total GDP in the country. Eight specialty coffee varieties were distributed among farmers in Gedeo and Sidama zones. This study examines the status of these varieties managed by farmers on their field. Status was investigated against seedling survival rate and varietal uniformity with the objective of establishing specialty coffee seed source. A multistage sampling technique was applied from zonal to kebele levels of administration. Samples were taken purposively at zonal and Woreda levels. Since all Kebeles in the selected Woredas grow specialty coffee, random sampling of these units was done including specific farmer sites. Semi structured questionnaire was applied to generate quantitative data while field level observation and group discussions were conducted to elicit qualitative data. For data analysis, SPSS version 20 was used. Survival rates of the coffee seedlings were 93 and 94.5% for Gedeo and Sidama zones, respectively. Only 5.04% of the respondents planted the distributed seedlings between existing coffee varieties. Hence, 94.96% specialty coffee uniformity was achieved. Finally, it is concluded that nearly 95% of the coffee growers have met the target to serve as specialty coffee seed source in both zones. However, more studies are needed for precise judgment of the surveyed farmers as specialty coffee seed sources of a uniform variety