Train farmers in coffee agronomy practices to boost productivity.
TechnoServe aims to provide sustainable, business-driven solutions to poverty. This project is built on TechnoServe’s Coffee Farm College to support coffee farmers in sustainably increasing the yield of their coffee farms but adds aspects of income diversification and post-harvest quality.
KEY FACTS
WHERE
Ethiopia (Oromia Region, Jimma Zone)
WHO
TechnoServe (Implementation) & IFPRI (Evaluation)
WHEN
Sep 2021 – Apr 2025
GOAL
Increase income through better coffee productivity, quality, and income diversification
REACH
15.760 households (21.000 farmers)
EVALUATION
Difference in Difference
KEY IMPACT METRIC
60%
of trained households stump at least 50 trees
KEY FACTS
WHERE
Ethiopia (Oromia Region, Jimma Zone)
WHO
TechnoServe (Implementation) & IFPRI (Evaluation)
WHEN
Sep 2021 – Apr 2025
GOAL
Increase income through better coffee productivity, quality, and income diversification
REACH
15.760 households (21.000 farmers)
EVALUATION
Difference in Difference
KEY IMPACT METRIC
60%
of trained households stump at least 50 trees
Approach
The project builds on TechnoServe’s core approach, the two-year Coffee Farm College. This group-based training approach with theoretical and practical lessons on good agricultural practices aims to increase coffee productivity and climate-resilience of coffee farms.
Within this project, the Coffee Farm College is accompanied by:
- Stumping incentives to increase adoption and intensity of stumping
- Beekeeping trainings to diversify farmers’ income
- Training and coaching of coffee washing stations to enhance coffee quality and prices
EVALUATION & LEARNING
The project is externally evaluated by the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) via a quasi-experimental study design (Difference-in-Difference combined with propensity score matching).
The evaluation addresses the following research questions:
- What is the (causal) impact of the program on key outcomes, including: (a) uptake and adoption of best agronomic and farm management practices; (b) coffee production and productivity; and (c) income of smallholder coffee farmers?
- What is the impact of incentive provisions on stumping adoption and intensity both in the short and mid-term?
- What is the potential of beekeeping as an additional/complementary income generating activity for coffee producing households?
- How do these impacts vary along demographic and socio-economic conditions?
In addition, within the first cohort, the combination of group-based and individual on-farm training is tested as an alternative training mode.
IMPACT
We expect the following impact:
- Higher household income
- 40% of trained households adopt at least two additional best practices
- 60% of trained households stump at least 50 trees
- 8.000 households increase their income from honey and wax by 1000 ETB
- Increase in average cherry price by 10% in comparison to non-participating coffee-washing stations