Advance in Arabica Forest Coffee Management Research in Ethiopia

Abstract

Forest and semi-forest coffee stands contribute to about 40 - 41% of the total production in the country. However, productivity of these stands is very low primarily because of poor management. In line with this, several experiments have been conducted to improve yields of these coffee stands in Ethiopia. Accordingly, it was observed that  rejuvenation practices, viz. topping, agobiado and eskeletamento increase forest coffee yield by 43.2, 40.4 and 38.0% over clean stumping and 12.5, 8.4 and 4.7% over control (not rejuvenated trees), respectively. Earlier stumping immediately after harvesting tends to promote yield. Coffee trees stumped at 50 cm height had slightly higher yield than the conventional 30 cm stump. Tied ridge gave respective yield advantage of 19.0 and 23.6% over untied ridge and traditional flat land field. Maintaining 3 - 4 bearing heads per tree or stump and adjusting plant population to 4000 - 5000, 5000 - 6000 and 7000 - 8000 trees ha^-1 had maximized productivity of forest coffee at Tepi, Jima and Metu and Agaro, respectively. On the other hand, forest coffee stands did not respond to mineral fertilizer application and weed management.