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Within and among farm variability of coffee quality of smallholders in southwest Ethiopia

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Abstract

The biophysical drivers that affect coffee quality vary within and among farms. Quantifying their relative importance is crucial for making informed decisions concerning farm management, marketability and profit for coffee farmers. The present study was designed to quantify the relative importance of biophysical variables affecting coffee bean quality within and among coffee farms and to evaluate a near infrared spectroscopy-based model to predict coffee quality. Twelve coffee plants growing under low, intermediate and dense shade were studied in twelve coffee farms across an elevational gradient (1470–2325 m asl) in Ethiopia. We found large within farm variability, demonstrating that conditions varying at the coffee plant-level are of large importance for physical attributes and cupping scores of green coffee beans. Overall, elevation appeared to be the key biophysical variable influencing all the measured coffee bean quality attributes at the farm level while canopy cover appeared to be the most important biophysical variable driving the above-mentioned coffee bean quality attributes at the coffee plant level. The biophysical variables driving coffee quality (total preliminary and specialty quality) were the same as those driving variations in the near-infrared spectroscopy data, which supports future use of this technology to assess green bean coffee quality. Most importantly, our findings show that random forest is computationally fast and robust to noise, besides having comparable prediction accuracy. Hence, it is a useful machine learning tool for regression studies and has potential for modeling linear and nonlinear multivariate calibrations. The study also confirmed that near-infrared spectroscopic-based predictions can be applied as a supplementary approach for coffee cup quality evaluations.

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Data availability

The datasets and R-code analyzed during the current study will be made available after publication via an online repository such as figshare.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Belgian Development Cooperation (NASCERE program) and Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE). The authors are profoundly grateful for the Ethiopian government for this support. We would like to thank coffee owners for allowing us to work in their coffee plots and the local and regional administration for providing the permits to work in the coffee farms. We also thank Beyene Zewdie for establishing the coffee plots. Lastly, we are very grateful to the ECX for their support in evaluating coffee cup quality.

Funding

The study has been supported by the NASCERE program of the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Global Minds from Ghent University. The authors are profoundly grateful for the Ethiopian government for this support. P.D.F. received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Starting Grant FORMICA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest and Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Merkebu Getachew, Kris Verheyen & Pieter De Frenne

  2. Department of Horticulture and Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia

    Merkebu Getachew

  3. Isotope Bioscience Laboratory, Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Pascal Boeckx

  4. Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Kassaye Tolassa

  5. Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ayco J. M. Tack, Kristoffer Hylander & Beyene Zewdie

  6. Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Stijn Luca

Authors
  1. Merkebu Getachew
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  2. Pascal Boeckx
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  7. Stijn Luca
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  8. Beyene Zewdie
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  9. Pieter De Frenne
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Contributions

Conceptualization, M.G., P.B., K.T., P.D.F. and K.V.; methodology, M.G., K.T., K.V., K.H., A.T., B.A., P.B. and P.D.F.; formal analysis, M.G. and S.L.; investigation, M.G. and K.T., writing—original draft, M.G. and P.D.F.; writing—review and editing, P.B., K.H., A.T., and K.V.; visualization, M.G., and B.A.; Funding Acquisition, P.B. and P.D.F.; Supervision, K.V., P.B. and P.D.F.

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Correspondence to Merkebu Getachew.

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Getachew, M., Boeckx, P., Verheyen, K. et al. Within and among farm variability of coffee quality of smallholders in southwest Ethiopia. Agroforest Syst 97, 883–905 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-023-00833-3

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