Speciality Coffee Reaching Next Users PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 03 June 2010 09:36

Reaching out the next users of improved coffee varieties has not been extremely limited. It is witnessed from documentary sources and live testimonies that the lack of clear and appropriately defined pathways was the major conspiring issue for this. In fact, this has been a minority sector in the research process.

The point of the issue is that the strength and severity of this have affected our agricultural research and development endeavour seriously. Actually, there was a serious lack of improved coffee technology supply for very demanding customers. We have lost much sympathy for our research activities. Thus, with good reason, there was a pressing need to redefine the vision, mission, and mandates of our Institute in a cost-effective fashion and by way of forgetting the present and changing the future. Because of this defining deed, to date, there are fresh new signs of transformations as to getting improved agricultural technologies to users and the future is looking brighter.

 

Thanks to the sagacity of researchers, several technologies are reaching the doorsteps of farmers. As a result, socioeconomic changes are being noticed among the farming and agro-pastoral communities. It is also equally noticed that our export agricultural commodities originating from improved crop varieties are reaching the global market. Keeping this momentum on its feet rests on the dedication of researchers and development agents of the coffee industry.

 

One of the visible steps taken by coffee researchers in association with development agents is the issue of multiplying speciality coffee varieties obtained from rigorous selection program for a long time. These speciality coffee varieties are ‘natural brands’ of unique tastes and other coffee qualities preferred by our coffee clients worldwide.

 

To tackle the inadequacies of improved coffee varieties, Jimma Research Center (JRC) of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) is spearheading the multiplication of millions of seedlings of speciality coffees of Limu, Harar and Sidama in their suitable propagation nursery sites. Coffee researchers are in control of nursery operation. This is the biggest engagement in the history of JRC. These seedlings are planned to cover thousands of hectares of land in those specific localities this season. The task shouldered by JRC researchers in a full collaboration with development agents is a sample of the contemporary thoughts and preferred actions strategized by the Government of Ethiopia. It is not a silly notion to congratulate coffee researchers on their latest achievements.

 

An important lesson can be learnt from the intelligence and tremendous experience of coffee researchers in JRC and elsewhere in the country. Obviously, this has a price, but the issue is how much it worth. As I saw it in my recent cursory visit, the work of JRC researchers and their collaborators in resuming the process is a test-bait in sustaining the speciality coffee improvement-production-cum-marketing activities. As a new perspective, in this make or break moment, this is one hope of research for innovation.

 

To better maintain the customer-based legacy of multiplying speciality coffee, more communication is required by all involved. Abrupt and unfocussed communication is more hindrance than help, may result in duplication and neglecting necessary activities and it would end up as a recipe for disaster.

 

Abebe Kirub, ICPR

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