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Building Knowledge on climate variables for Ethiopian coffee producers

Ethiopia food for progress projectUnder the Food for Progress funded Regrow Yirga project, USDA aims to build knowledge around climate variables and various agronomy best practices as well as build the capacity of key support functions and institutions – particularly the Jimma Agriculture Research Centre (JARC) -- for coffee research on climate-smart varietals and on-farm practices and technologies which address key questions regarding the quantification of agronomic practices (including those for climate resilience), germplasm management and development, for improvements in farm sustainability, profitability, and climate resilience (the primary focus).

Kew Gardens aims to support the Regrow Yirga project team and JARC to prioritize applied research on climate-smart and resilient varietals and technologies to help farmers better manage farms and external shocks. Together, they plan on a three-year set of on-farm trials (September 2023 to December 2025) on various Climate Smart GAPs and germplasm – monitored remotely by Kew – to demonstrate a very solid proof-of-concept that the approach works and to generate enormously valuable data and understanding. This will be built on the Arabica germplasm collections held in Ethiopia – by far the world’s most important - with at least 6,000 accessions held in the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) alone.

Read the Project Progress Report

Contact:

Craig Tenney, International Program Specialist, Craig.Tenney@usda.gov

Ingrid Ardjosoediro, Director, Food for Progress, Ingrid.Ardjosoediro@usda.gov

Collaborating agencies, organizations, or institutions:

TechnoServe

Kew Gardens (UK)

Jimma Agriculture Research Centre (JARC; Ethiopia)