How do Farmers Allocate Land for Coffee Trees? Implications for On-Farm Conservation and Seed Technology Adoption in Ethiopia

Abstract

The role of genetic resources as building blocks for sustainable agriculture is threatened due, among other things, to perverse diversity outcomes of policy-driven development interventions. To undertake mitigating measures and promote prudent use of seed technologies, farmers' land allocation decisions have to be understood. This paper explains the land share allocated to local coffee varieties using logit transformation regression. Based on the empirical results, the paper concludes that decision-makers will have to consider the relevant factors and deal with the trade-offs to prioritize and undertake on-farm conservation and variety adoption interventions for sustainable agriculture.

Constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers of the journal are highly appreciated.

KEYWORDS:

• coffee diversity
• land allocation
• on-farm conservation
• improved variety adoption
• Ethiopia

Notes

Constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers of the journal are highly appreciated.

¹ Price collapse is an important driving force for farmers to switch from coffee farming to other enterprises not to switch from one coffee variety to another (Wale and Mburu, 2006).

² Agro-biodiversity encompasses various biological resources tied to agriculture including edible plants and crops, livestock and fish, naturally occurring insects, bacteria and fungi, agro-ecosystem components, wild resources of natural habitats and landscapes, and the genetic resources contained therein (Thrupp, 2000).

³ This principle states that more labor will come to farming until it meets (balances) the needs (consumption) of the household.

⁴ Peasant Association is the lowest governance structure in Ethiopia below a District.